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Jewish victim of Arab rioters succumbs to his wounds

His wife, Irena, told website N12, that “Yigal was a symbol of coexistence.”

By World Israel News Staff

A Jewish resident of Lod died on Monday after succumbing to his wounds sustained a week ago by Arab rioters in the city of Lod, his hometown.

Yigal Yehoshua, 56, was seriously injured when Arab rioters threw stones at his car. He was hit in the head with a brick. He was rushed to the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center south of Tel Aviv.

Ynet reports there have been no arrests made in the attack.

His wife, Irena, told website N12, that “Yigal was a symbol of coexistence.”

“I spoke to him 20 minutes or half an hour before the incident. He was at a Torah scroll ceremony in one of the moshavim near Ramle,” she said. “He told me he was waiting for the rabbi’s blessing and that he would return home right away – I was not even worried because it was right next to our neighborhood.”

“He managed to drive to the house, he even tried to park, but he hit some vehicles,” Irena said. “The neighbors went straight downstairs and ordered him an ambulance, but the injury was too severe. I saw no injury, but only when I went to the driver’s side did I see the window shattered and his shirt soaked in blood.”

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Due to the family’s fear of the rioters, they were afraid to visit him in the hospital in the evening. She told N12: “We do not really leave the house in the evening, we only drove in the morning. The problem is that in our neighborhood there is only one road connecting to the rest of the city – and that is the trap here. He did not pass through dangerous neighborhoods it happened to us at the entrance to our neighborhood.”

Lod, in which 30% of the population of 77,000 is Arab, had been considered a model of coexistence until riots broke out last week, shattering that illusion. The Arabs torched their Jewish neighbors cars, set fire to synagogues and searched out Jews to attack. Jews reportedly took down mezuzot on their doorposts for fear that their homes would be identified as Jewish by the rioters.