"Who cursed?": Police officers accused of assaulting young people in the north

The Police Investigation Department (Mahash) filed this morning (Thursday) at the Nazareth Magistrate's Court a serious indictment against three police officers and a police volunteer from the Nazareth station, charging all four with assault under aggravating circumstances.

The indictment, filed by attorney Hila Cohen, states that the defendants violently assaulted three young people, one of whom was a minor at the time of the incident, solely due to the suspicion that they had teased them.

The incident occurred in April 2024, when the four defendants were on patrol duty and driving in two police vehicles near a square in the village of Mashhad. After believing that the occupants of a passing vehicle had cursed at them, they signaled the driver to pull over to the side of the road. Immediately upon the vehicle stopping, one of the defendants approached to ask who had cursed, and at the same time, another defendant punched one of the passengers, a minor born in 2007, in the face, pulled him out of the vehicle, and continued to punch him in the chest.

Subsequently, according to the findings of the investigation conducted by the northern team of Mahash, all four defendants jointly attacked the three young people, hitting them forcefully with fists and kicking them in various parts of their bodies, while shouting at them phrases such as "Who do you think you are talking to?". After the violent incident, one of the defendants even conducted an illegal search of the vehicle. As a result of the severe assault, two of the complainants sustained injuries to various parts of their bodies.