An 88-year-old Holocaust survivor from Ramat Gan was violently assaulted in broad daylight on Ben-Gurion Street on Saturday morning, the woman, identified only as Bella, told Walla on Sunday.
Bella said a 36-year-old resident of the city allegedly ran toward her shouting insults and repeatedly punched her, sending her to the hospital with serious facial injuries.
“He could have murdered me,” she told Walla, describing how the attacker closed the distance within seconds and struck her in the eye. "He called me a w**** and ran towards me."
Bella said she had nowhere to escape because cars were parked along the street, and she could not run because of knee pain.
She said she lost consciousness and later woke to find herself on the roadway as paramedics treated her, bleeding and struggling to open one eye.
She was evacuated by Magen David Adom to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, where she received treatment for facial and eye injuries and remained under observation for several hours.
Bella added that the incident left her shaken, saying that even as a child during the Holocaust, she “did not have such trauma.”
Police confirmed the attacker did not know the victim
“This was a serious assault in which the suspect attacked an elderly woman while she was walking down the street, despite there being no prior acquaintance between them,” Chief Inspector Tzahi Itach, head of the Investigations and Intelligence Division at the Bnei Brak–Ramat Gan police station, told Walla.
“Our officers arrived at the scene, restrained the suspect, and arrested him. The elderly woman sustained significant facial injuries and was treated in the hospital. We view incidents of this kind very seriously and will show zero tolerance for violence. The investigation is ongoing in order to bring the suspect to justice.”
At a hearing on Sunday, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court extended the suspect’s detention until Wednesday. The court also ordered that he remain in custody under hospitalization conditions, and a defense request to appeal the decision was rejected.