Five female high school students in 9th grade who learn in a middle-school in the center of the country were arrested on Tuesday under the suspicion of repeatedly beating one of their classmates. Another boy, one year older, was also arrested under the suspicion that he documented the incident on his phone and did not intervene.

Police conducted an investigation into the beatings after gaining access to the documented video which the boy took. At the end of the initial investigation, all six of the students were suspended pending the outcome of the case.

The investigation began at the beginning of the week when the police found out about two instances in which the girl, aged 14, was severely beaten by her peers. The suspects attacked the girl in school, and continued their assault in a public park nearby after school hours. The boy, aged 15, videoed the incident in the park instead of intervening and then spread the incident widely on WhatsApp.

After interviewing the girl who was being beaten in the video, police were told that these beatings have been recurring for a long period of time.

Police took action against the teens in cooperation with the school and city hall. At the end of the investigation, the teen suspects were released under special conditions, one of which is that they be suspended until further notice by the school.

A police spokesperson told Israeli media: “Whenever there are acts of violence, even if the person assaulted does not come forward and file a complaint, our officers will respond quickly and firmly in order to bring the suspects to stand trial for what they have done.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)