African Immigrant Left To Die for 18 Minutes After Being Mistaken for Terrorist
TEL AVIV — New closed-circuit television footage shows the deadly beating of an Eritrean migrant who was mistaken for a terrorist after an attack in Beersheba laying untreated on the floor for 18 minutes.
The footage released Monday by Haaretz shows Haftom Zarhum, 29, lying on the floor of the Beersheba central bus station before being treated by members of Magen David Adom, who had arrived 10 minutes earlier. The Israeli newspaper did not say how it received the video.
Zarhum was shot several times and attacked by nine people, including Israeli civilians, security forces, prison officials and soldiers, believing he was a terrorist, the footage shows.
Four of the alleged attackers have been indicted. An Israeli citizen who attempted to shield Zarhum from the crowd was pushed aside and hit.
The actual assailant, a Bedouin citizen of Israel, killed a soldier and wounded about a dozen others in the Oct. 18 attack at the bus station.
Zarhum had been seeking an extension for his visa to remain in Israel.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO