An Arab man, who apparently was intoxicated, broke into the apartment of M, an avreich living in the Hadar neighborhood of Haifa while he, he wife and their four children were at home. The drunken man even attacked police who arrived on the scene, injuring one of them. He was detained and released after a few hours, after police determined he was intoxicated and the time, and he later expressed remorse and apologized.

The incident occurred on Shabbos, after members of the family heard pounding on their front door of their Michal Street apartment. M tried to understand what was taking place, then hearing one of his neighbors, the drunken Arab, shouting “open the door”.

The chareidi avreich was filled with horror, and he locked the door and refused to open it. The Arab however smashed a window and managed to enter, nonetheless. Despite being Shabbos, the avreich felt the situation was one of pikuach nefesh and he used the phone to call police. Four police cars arrived, and the officers tried to restrain the intruder. One of them was injured in the process.

In the meantime, a neighbor took his family and they ran outside the building. Eventually, the police succeeded in retraining the Arab intruder, taking him to the police station. The family of the avreich did not return home. They and the neighbors were unpleasantly shocked to learn police released the intruder a number of hours later.

Family members are quoted speaking with Charedim10 News, asking rhetorically “How could they release him? Who knows, perhaps next time he will do more than just injure someone.”

Some 30 families from the chareidi community took part in a small protest on Sunday, demanding authorities distance the violent Arab neighbor from the area.

Chareidim10 adds when contacted for a comment, police explained “It was a drunk neighbor. There is absolutely no nationalistic motive here. He was simply drunk”.

Police add the suspect’s record only shows a history of being drunk, nothing more, citing the man apologized and is willing to pay for any and all damage caused.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)