Eritrean dies after Israeli guard shoots him, mob attacks

An Eritrean refugee has died of his wounds after being shot by an Israeli security guard and then attacked by bystanders who mistook him for an assailant in a deadly bus station attack in southern Israel, hospital officials said Monday.

The mistaken shooting of the man, for reasons that remain unclear, came amid ratcheted-up tensions between Israelis and Palestinians after months of lone-wolf attacks by Palestinians and crackdowns by Israeli security officials. Violence in the past two weeks has killed 45 Palestinians, including alleged assailants and demonstrators at anti-Israeli protests, as well as eight Israelis and the Eritrean. It was set off in part by Palestinians' anger over what they see as increased Jewish encroachment on occupied East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.

According to the police, the violence at the bus station on Sunday began when an attacker stabbed a soldier and stole his weapon, opening fire on the crowd at the terminal. The soldier died at a hospital and at least 11 others were wounded. Police named the suspected attacker as Muhand Alukabi, 21, a resident of Hura in the Negev.

A security guard at the scene mortally wounded the Eritrean asylum seeker. 

Israel's Interior Ministry identified the Eritrean as Haptom Zerhom, a man in his late 20s. Nitza Neuman-Heiman, the deputy general director of Soroka Medical Center, told Army Radio that Zerhom arrived at the hospital in “very serious condition” and died late Sunday from gunshot wounds and injuries sustained during the bystanders’ attack. The hospital said he suffered gunshot wounds to the abdomen.

A graphic cellphone video of the attack circulating online shows him bleeding on the bus station floor as bystanders kick him.

An Israeli identified only by the first name Dudu told Israeli Army Radio that he regretted participating in the attack on the Eritrean migrant.

"I understood from people he was a terrorist. If I would have known he wasn't a terrorist, believe me, I would have protected him like I protect myself," he said. "I didn't sleep well at night. I feel disgusted."

Police are seeking to arrest those Israeli civilians who "aggressively beat" and kicked the Eritrean man "while he lay on the floor and posed no threat," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the beating, telling members of his Likud Party that Israel is a "law-abiding country."

"No one should take the law into their own hands," he said.

“It's terrible,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said. “It shows you what a terrible situation we are in.” The daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot left no ambiguity as to why it thought the man was shot. An article in Monday's paper was headlined “Just because of his skin color.”

Africans frequently complain of racial discrimination in Israel.

Hamas, the group that rules the Gaza Strip, said Sunday’s attack at the bus station was a “natural response,” and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian group, said it was a “normal answer to Israeli crimes.”

The incident comes just a day after five Palestinians were shot dead during alleged stabbing attacks — three of them in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Palestinians have disputed the police version of events in some of those cases.

Diplomatic moves to halt the violence have gained steam. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, due to hold separate meetings this week with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, said on Monday it was vital they clarify the status of Al-Aqsa complex. “I don't have specific expectations except to try to move things forward, and that will depend on the conversations themselves,” he told reporters in Madrid.

Netanyahu has said he seeks no change to the decades-old status quo, in which Israel bans Jewish prayer at Al-Aqsa site, in the walled Old City of East Jerusalem, captured along with the West Bank in a 1967 war.

In a bid to stem the most serious attacks on its streets since a Palestinian uprising a decade ago, Israel has poured hundreds of troops into its cities and set up roadblocks in Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.

Israel is also set to widen police stop-and-frisk powers that will effectively allow officers to search anyone on the street. The bill still requires parliament's approval.

The Ministry of Public Security on Sunday said the government approved a bill that would enable police to conduct physical searches of people, even if there are no indications that they were carrying arms.

Rights groups have condemned recent Israeli security measures, which Majd Kayyal from Adalah, a Palestinian legal center in Israel, said aim to expand the powers of the police without any legal restrictions.

"These measures put the police above the law," he told Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera and wire services