Elderly man dies during J'lem robbery

Man threatened and gagged by group of men who force their way into his apartment in Beit Hanina.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS, JPOST.COM STAFF
A 70-year-old Arab resident of Jerusalem died Tuesday after he was assaulted and robbed in his city home, police said. The late-morning robbery in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina was the latest in a series of violent robberies in the city which targeted seniors. The elderly victim of the robbery was at home with his wife when the suspected Arab robbers broke-in to their home and robbed them under threat, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said. The man, whose mouth was sealed with tape, died shortly thereafter. Earlier Tuesday, a gold chain and a diamond ring were stolen from an 86-year-old woman in her Tel Aviv apartment. The woman said the robber knocked on the door of her home, grabbed the jewelry and ran away. The three previous robberies against the elderly in Jerusalem had targeted Jewish residents. Last month, an 80-year-old Jerusalem woman who immigrated to Israel from New York seven years ago was assaulted and robbed in her central Jerusalem home. A day earlier, a 75-year-old woman was attacked at the entrance to her downtown city flat after she opened the door to her home. In the latter incident, the woman's 80-year-old husband managed to scare off the attacker. In November, a 79-year-old woman who lived alone was savagely assaulted and robbed in her Jerusalem apartment in the city's Kiryat Yovel neighborhood. The assailants in all four brazen daytime attacks remain at large.