Police arrested three suspects Monday evening over an attack on a pregnant Arab woman in Jaffa over the weekend, which inflamed tensions in the mixed Jewish-Arab city.
The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court issued a gag order on details of the probe, forbidding the publication of any information that could identify the three suspects.
Police initially arrested two alleged perpetrators, before nabbing a third suspect later Monday night. They were interrogated by officers from the Ayalon District’s crimefighting unit.
The three are suspected of pepper-spraying 30-year-old Hanan Abu Shehadeh while she was driving Saturday with her two children in Jaffa’s Ajami neighborhood.
The attackers shouted racist epithets and spat on her 7-year-old daughter, she told Arabic outlets.
Police said the incident occurred after an argument between Abu Shehadeh and the assailants, but she and her family have rejected the claim, insisting the attackers were motivated by anti-Arab sentiment.
On Sunday, police solicited the public’s help in searching for three young men suspected in the attack, sharing a still from security camera footage displaying their faces. According to Hebrew outlets, the Shin Bet has been assisting police in the case.
The attack outraged residents and led many to take part in a turbulent march to the site of the incident, accusing the government of complicity in the attack.
Participants chanted, “Tell the Shin Bet dogs we’re not afraid of conflict,” as well as, “In blood, in spirit, we will redeem Jaffa.”
A day after the march, officers arrested 14 other men at their homes on suspicion of engaging in “behavior that is liable to disturb the public peace.”
Many community activists accused the police of adhering to a double standard by arresting participants at Saturday night’s march, but not the perpetrators of the attack that sparked the demonstration.
Police also arrested Sheikh Issam al-Satal on suspicion of incitement, after he gave a fiery speech at the demonstration urging Tel Aviv’s Mayor Ron Huldai to take action against the local Garin Torani, or “Torah nucleus.”
Jaffa is one of many areas with a Garin Torani, groups of residents loosely organized around the goal of anchoring a religious Zionist presence in cities where many of the residents are non-Jewish or secular. Though the identity of the three assailants is not yet known, many community activists blame the Garin for the attack.
“We must choose: to remain silent, to continue this way and wait for the next violent escalation of the Garin Torani, or to take to the streets, to exert pressure and make it clear to agencies that this reality will not continue,” wrote Abed Abu Shehadeh, the head of Jaffa’s Islamic Council, on Facebook.
All 15 march participants were all released on bail by the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court Monday afternoon, after Judge Shelly Kotin rejected police’s request to extend the protesters’ detention by five days and temporarily bar them from Jaffa.
Police also sought a stay of execution of the decision, but were denied.
معتقلو مدينة يافا المفرج عنهم في محكمة تل أبيب
تصوير: أمير بويرات (عرب 48)
التفاصيل: https://t.co/6PMqpLOsB4 pic.twitter.com/FWlxOYdQ6h— موقع عرب 48 (@arab48website) December 15, 2025
Meanwhile, Arab residents of Jaffa went on strike to protest the attack, leading schools and businesses to shutter Monday.
Abu Shehadeh told Ynet that the strike was widely adhered to after being announced just the day before. “Even two Jewish schools joined the strike in the first two hours of the day,” he said to the outlet.
Another protest over the attack and its aftermath was scheduled for Friday in Jaffa, according to Arabic outlets.
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