Shocking details about the incident of severe violence on Monday by Arabs at Hadassah Har HaTzofim Hospital in Jerusalem were revealed on Thursday in a Makor Rishon report.

According to the report, dozens of Arabs assaulted the medical staff and demanded that they continue the resuscitation of their relative, who had died of a drug overdose. One of them took a sliver of glass from a broken bottle and threatened a doctor that if he doesn’t resuscitate his relative, he’ll slaughter him.

Another media outlet reported that the nurses hid in the bathroom out of fear for their lives.

If that wasn’t enough, the medical staffers say that the security guard refused to call the police despite the doctors’ pleas. At least four staff members told Makor Rishon that the security guards at Hadassah have a policy of refraining from calling the police, instead making efforts to end violent clashes via dialogue. The hospital denies that this is their policy, saying that the security guards use their discretion in each incident to determine if the police are needed.

A source at the hospital said that not every incident explodes and reaches the dimensions seen this week. “The police are called when there is fear of a serious situation and professional judgment is exercised in every incident,” he said, adding that not only is there no policy of refraining from calling the police but “on the contrary, we prefer a police prescence when necessary.”

One of the doctors said: “I understand the security guards who don’t respond but they fear for their lives and for whom may be waiting for them in the parking lot at the end of their shift. We’re in a high-friction area and we must have a regular police presence here.”

Har Hatzofim Hospital is not only in a mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhood but is located next to the Arab neighborhood of Issawiya, where no Jew can safely enter. Over one-third of the patients at the hospital are Arabs.

Two days after the incident at Hadassah, another violent incident occurred on Wednesday evening at the Galilee Medical Center in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya.

A third incident occurred at Wolfson Hospital in Holon on Thursday night, when a patient hit an emergency room doctor in the face, breaking his glasses. The doctor filed a complaint with the police.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)