JERUSALEM, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The street ethnic violence between Jews and Arabs has spiralled up in major cities throughout Israel in the past few days amid the ongoing most intense fighting between the Israeli forces and militants in the Gaza Strip since 2014.
In a location in central Israel, a Jewish mob attempted to lynch an Arab man, who rushed to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in a serious condition "with multiple injuries all over his body," the hospital said in a statement, identifying him as a 33-year-old Arab man.
The incident was broadcast live on Israel's state-owned Kan TV news. Dozens of Jews were seen pulling the man out of his car, throwing him to the ground and pounding, kicking and hitting him with sticks of the Israeli flags.
During the violence, no security forces or rescue service personnel were seen on the spot.
"It's a very serious incident," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Xinhua, saying forces have dispersed the mob but suspects have yet to be arrested.
At nightfall, dozens of Jewish ultra-nationalists with black masks responded to a call issued on social networks by an anti-Arab group known as La Familia to go to the coast city of Bat Yam.
Video footage on local media showed them smashing windows of Arab shops and looting.
A police statement said they also attempted to reach Jaffa, a predominantly Arab quarter of Tel Aviv but were blocked by security forces.
In Acre, a mixed city on Israel's northern shore, a Jewish driver was seriously injured in what local media reported as an attempted lynch.
In Tiberias city, Jews rallied in support of Israel's ongoing military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. They attacked with stones an Arab driver who passed near the rally.
Police reported protests in Arab cities in central Israel and clashes with the police. Highway 2, a coastal highway that connects northern Israel to Tel Aviv, was partly closed after protesters hurled stones at cars.
In Lod, a mixed city east of Tel Aviv where a night curfew was imposed on Wednesday night in a bid to halt the days of violence, at least 14 persons were injured, according to emergency health services.
The curfew came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a special state of emergency in the city.
Arab citizens in Israel are Palestinians who did not leave during the 1948 war that broke out just in the wake of the announcement of the independence of the state of Israel. Official figures show they suffer a lack of job opportunities and less government spending on education, health, and infrastructure. Enditem
