Arab suspected in attack on rabbi in central Israel arrested

28-year-old Arab man arrested after rabbi dragged out of his car, beaten in central Israeli city of Lod.

Police in central Israel have arrested an Arab man suspected of assaulting a rabbi in the city of Lod on Sunday.

The 28-year-old suspect was arrested, questioned, then released to house arrest, after he allegedly dragged Rabbi Itamar Ben-Yaakov out of his car Sunday and beat him, following an apparent dispute in a parking lot in the city of Lod.

Rabbi Ben-Yaakov, the rabbi of the Eshkol neighborhood in Lod, had driven to pick up his children from a daycare center, when he found his car blocked by an Arab woman who had exited her vehicle.

After the woman refused to let him pass, Rabbi Ben-Yaakov called police, while the Arab woman called her relatives. Shortly thereafter, two Arab men approached Rabbi Ben-Yaakov’s car, pulled him from the vehicle and knocked him to the ground and began to beat him.

Rabbi Ben-Yaakov suffered light injuries during the attack.