Archive photo
Archive photoYonatan Sindel/Flash90

An Israeli man suspected of a string of attacks on Palestinian Authority residents working in Israeli towns has been charged in a preliminary indictment of at least six nationalistically-motivated incidents over the past few months.

The suspect, a 25-year-old resident of the largely haredi town of Beitar Illit south of Jerusalem, was arrested a week and a half ago, a day after a Palestinian Arab working in Beitar filed a complaint with local police, accusing the suspect of attempting to run him down with a private car.

According to the preliminary indictment, the suspect spotted his intended victim, a street cleaner, stopped his car next to the worker and asked the man a series of questions.

Once he was certain that the worker was Arab, he returned to his vehicle, and attempted to run down the street cleaner. The suspect made multiple attempts to hit the Arab man. After failing to run down his intended victim, the suspect fled the scene.

The street cleaner filed a complaint with police, who apprehended the suspect the next day.

During interrogation, the suspect admitted he had attempted to run down the street cleaner, adding that the attempt was nationalistically motivated. The suspect also told investigators that he was responsible for five other attacks on Arabs in the area, including incidents involving physical assault and damage to private vehicles owned by Arab workers.

On Monday, police filed a preliminary indictment against the suspect. The Jerusalem Magistrate Court extended the suspect’s arrest by four days.