A young woman who threw a tomato at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday during a campaign stop in Tel Aviv was arrested and questioned by police, then released later in the day, after investigators concluded her motive was not political.

The woman, identified only as an 18-year-old resident of Tel Aviv’s Hatikva neighborhood, failed to hit the prime minister with the tomato, as he was surrounded by a large number of police and security guards during a tour of the Hatikva Shuk with his wife, Sara, ahead of general elections next week.

The tomato thrower is known to authorities as suffering from a mental illness, according to multiple media reports.

“She didn’t do it from any political motive. She doesn’t quite know who’s who on the political side,” a police source told the Walla news site after the woman’s release. “It’s clear to us she had no political opinion or motive.”

Video of the incident went viral on Israeli social media.

Blue and White chief Benny Gantz condemned the incident, saying, “Israel needs unity — not violence.”

But Netanyahu’s Likud claimed Blue and White helped spread the footage online.

“The 99.9 percent support for Prime Minister Netanyahu at Hatikva Market really bothered Benny Gantz, so he decided to put out the video clip to the media of the 0.1% and afterwards rushed to condemn” the tomato throwing, the party was quoted as saying by Hebrew media.

אזרחי ישראל, אין עליכם! תודה מכל הלב על התמיכה האדירה היום בשוק התקווה. ביחד נמשיך להוביל את ישראל להישגים אדירים, עוד שנים רבות pic.twitter.com/2DmEXM9XQA

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 2, 2019

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)