A 12-year-old Arab child was seriously injured Friday night when a flaming firebomb was thrown into his family’s home in Jaffa (Yafo).
The boy and his 10-year-old sister were both injured; the boy was taken to Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv where he is under sedation and receiving treatment for serious burn wounds.
Israel Police have opened an investigation into the attack, according to Israel’s Channel N12 News.
עג’מי: המשטרה פתחה כעת בחקירת חשד להשלכת בקבוק תבערה לתוך בית ביפו, במהלכו נפגע תושב המקום באורח קל. המשטרה פתחה בסריקות אחר חשודים לצד איסוף ממצאים במסגרת החקירה לבחינת הרקע והנסיבות. pic.twitter.com/bFYBw3WeNG
— אור רביד | Or Ravid (@OrRavid)
Two masked attackers were seen on security camera footage throwing the firebomb (Molotov cocktail) into the child’s bedroom and then fleeing the scene.
Police originally suspected the attack was committed by Jews, but now it appears it was done by the Arab rioters who have been setting fires throughout the city.
Walla! News diplomatic correspondent Barak Ravid wrote his Twitter account Saturday night that he deleted an earlier tweet because it seems there that Jews were not behind this heinous attack.
“Tonight I deleted a tweet in which I wrote that the throwing of a Molotov cocktail from which the Arab boy in Jaffa was seriously injured was the result of incitement in the studios,” Ravid wrote.
“Why did I delete? Because there are reports that raise the possibility that Jews are not behind this incident. By the way, the police said that this is only one direction of investigation alongside the opposite possibility. We will continue to learn the facts,” he added.
A reporter from Israel’s Channel 13 was also attacked in Jaffa by a mob in the city that spraying him with pepper spray and damaged his car.
In Jerusalem, Arabs set fire to a train station and threw rocks at a Jewish building in the neighborhood of Shiloach (Silwan), also known as the City of David.
A Border Guard Police vehicle in the Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur erupted in flames after a firebomb was thrown at it. Troops extinguished the flames.
Israeli security forces were busy dispersing mobs in several other locations in the capital, including the southern neighborhood of Beit Safafa and the outskirts of the northern neighborhood of Neve Yaakov.
In the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Akko, the city’s theater was torched. One of the theater directors told Ynet, “We’ve been working together for 36 years, Jews and Arabs. We are one family,” he said.
In the mixed city of Lod, a man was shot by police as he was about to throw a Molotov cocktail at the city’s largest mosque. Also in the city, a community center was torched; six people were treated for smoke inhalation.
In Lod, Border Guard Police officers uncovered a cache of weapons, firebombs and fireworks inside a mosque. At least 15 arrests were made.
Eight more people were arrested in Umm al-Fahm, Furdis and Jisr az-Zarqa on suspicion of rioting, hurling stones and throwing live fireworks at police. Five were arrested in Ara’ra on the same charges.
Sheikh Kamal al-Khatib, a senior member of the Northern Islamic movement, was also arrested on charges of incitement to violence.