Mother and daughter's trip to the dream island turned into a nightmare: "He asked where we were from, and gave me a brutal beating. I fainted"
Two Israelis were hospitalized in serious condition after encountering a passerby on their way to a waterfall on Koh Phangan, who inquired about their origin. "He said he didn't like what is happening in Gaza - and attacked us," recalled the mother, who was struck in the head and collapsed. The attacker has since been arrested.
A brutal antisemitic attack occurred on an island popular among Israelis: A man with a French passport, having identified a mother and her daughter on Koh Phangan in Thailand as Israeli citizens, beat them and caused severe injuries, leading to their hospitalization in serious condition.
"Out of nowhere, he started giving me a brutal beating and bit my ear," the mother told ynet. "We have bruises all over our bodies, everything is swollen. We went through a real terror attack and it was terribly shocking." The 62-year-old mother had flown to visit her 23-year-old daughter, who is on a long trip in Thailand. On Tuesday, while hiking to a waterfall on Koh Phangan, they encountered a passerby.
"We went to the waterfall by motorcycle, parked on the road, and then had to walk about 100 meters on foot," the mother recounted. "Suddenly, a guy who was also on a motorcycle stopped behind us. We were busy buying a coconut, he asked my daughter where we were from and she said from Israel." At this stage, the man began to provoke them. "He said, 'I don't like what Israel is doing there (in Gaza),' and I answered that we are on vacation and don't want to talk about this subject. He said, 'I am against violence,' and the conversation ended. Suddenly he called us from above, came down to us, and started giving me a brutal beating. My daughter tried to protect me and also got hit. I received blows to the head and at some point, apparently, I fainted."
The attacker continued to beat the mother until the daughter ran towards the road to call for help. "He chased her, and she managed to call two French girls who were there," the mother recalled. "When he saw that there were more people on the road, he took his motorcycle and fled. I remember lying on the road and people telling me that police and an ambulance would arrive soon." Upon arrival at the hospital, medical teams determined that surgeries were necessary. "They did a head CT and saw that I had bleeding, then decided to transfer us by boat to a hospital on Koh Samui. I spent 24 hours in intensive care. My daughter underwent nose surgery, I had my ear operated on, and I will probably need another surgery."
The mother added from her hospital bed: "I didn't think that here in Thailand, with people so nice to Israelis, such an incident would happen to me. I am always careful, but here I thought it was safe. He had a French accent but didn't look like a Frenchman." The attacker was arrested by chance following another incident in which he went on a rampage in another city and beat police officers. "The police did a good job here and caught this villain. I am afraid that this attack will accompany us for a long time. We will learn a lesson not to say that we are from Israel, because you can't know what the reaction will be."
