JERUSALEM — An Eritrean asylum-seeker died of his wounds Monday morning after he was shot by police officers who mistook him for an assailant during an attack in the southern Israeli city of Be’er Sheva.
A man, who Israeli police said Monday was a Bedouin from southern Israel, entered the central bus station in Be’er Sheva Sunday night and began stabbing people. Police say he then grabbed a gun from a nearby Israeli soldier and opened fire.
An Israeli serviceman, identified as 19-year-old Sgt. Omri Levy, was killed. Four people remain in critical and serious conditions in the hospital, and five police officers were also wounded, according to medics at the scene.
While the assailant launched his attack at one end of the bus station, at the other end police opened fire on an Eritrean asylum-seeker. The identity of the man is unclear: He has was identified as Haftom Zarhum, 29, by the Haaretz newspaper, and as Mila Binsamo, 26, by the Jerusalem Post. It is not clear why police opened fire or believed him to be one of the attackers, though initial reports from the scene included rumors of a second attacker.
“Only about two hours after the attack did it become clear that there was only one terrorist rather than two, and that civilians and security personnel had wounded and killed an African national whom they mistakenly suspected of being a second terrorist,” wrote Israeli defense correspondent Amos Harel in Haaretz. “The blows he suffered, and the efforts to prevent an ambulance crew from treating him, attest to the panic infecting the public. This incident reflects a serious loss of control, and Israel’s critics will undoubtedly present it as proof that Israelis are racist.”
In graphic video from the scene, the Eritrean asylum seeker can be seen lying on the ground in a pool of blood, while a mob around him gathers, throwing a bench at him and kicking him. Several of those present make efforts to stop the aggressors, pinning him down with a chair and attempting to form a circle around him to keep away the angry mob.
One of Israel’s most popular Hebrew language papers, Yediot Ahronot, ran a story on the incident with the headline “Just because of his skin color.”
.@yediotahronot front page on shooting of Eritrean in B7 attack: 'terrible mistake', 'just bcuz of his skin color'
As of May 2013, Israel’s Interior Ministry estimated that there were nearly 55,000 asylum-seekers living in Israel, most of them from Sudan and Eritrea. Israel’s government and its judicial system have been at odds over how to cope with the asylum-seekers, with the government pushing for them to either be confined to Holot, a remote detention facility in southern Israel, or face forcible deportation.
In August, Israel’s High Court ruled that asylum-seekers could not be kept in Holot for over a year, ordering over 1,200 people immediately released. Israel’s Minister of Interior announced that the freed asylum-seekers would receive temporary two-month visas stipulating that they were banned from the major Israeli cities of Eilat and Tel Aviv, where most asylum-seekers are currently living.
It is unclear if the man killed Sunday was among those recently freed from Holot, or where he was currently residing.
The recent round of violence facing Israel and the Palestinian territories erupted in Jerusalem a month ago over tensions surrounding a site known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, and to Jews as the Temple Mount. In recent weeks, violence has spread from Jerusalem to the West Bank, Gaza, and much of Israel.
Over the last month, nine Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, most of them stabbings. Forty-one Palestinians have been killed, including 20 identified by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes and protests with Israeli security forces.