Acco, Israel – Yeshiva Under Arab Siege at Simchas Torah Celebration

Acco, Israel – Hundreds of rioting Arabs surrounded a yeshiva in Acco while Yeshiva students were holding Simchat Torah processions in the area, the Arabs were preventing the students from leaving the building.

Local police were called in to break the Arab siege on the Hesder yeshiva, located in the Wolfson neighborhood of Acco. Large forces of police streamed to the neighborhood, accompanied by the mayor to try to calm the waters in the mixed Arab-Jewish coastal city. Police officers took control of the volatile situation and the crowd began to disperse. There were no injuries reported, but one person was arrested for discharging a firearm.

Accounts from the scene indicate that the riot and subsequent siege was preceded by verbal and possibly physical attacks on several yeshiva students by local Arabs as the students were dancing with Torah scrolls through the streets, at that time a yeshiva student, an active-duty soldier and the yeshiva’s security guard, fired his weapon in the air when he believed that there was a threat to himself and the other students, who were dancing and singing in traditional post-Simchas Torah celebrations.

The gunfire led an Arab mob to surround the yeshiva, with the shooter and several dozen students retreating inside, until police came and took control.