May 18, 2021: Yigal Yehoshua, 56, died of wounds sustained six days earlier, when he drove his vehicle into a group of Palestinians protesting and was pelted with stones.
One of the stones hit him on the head, and he was taken to the hospital with critical injuries. Six days later, he died from the critical head wound he had sustained. Seven Palestinians, 2 from the West Bank and 5 from Lod, were taken into custody later that month and charged with his murder.
The Palestinians had been protesting in Lod after a night of Israeli bombings of Gaza, and the shooting of Palestinian resident of Lod, Mousa Hassouna.
Hassouna had been shot to death by right-wing Israeli settlers in Lod. But just days after the murder, the Israeli police released the four suspects they had been holding in suspicion of involvement in his killing.
The wife of Yigal Yehoshua, Irena, told Israeli reporters with Channel 12 that he was “a ‘paragon of coexistence’ who worked as an electrician and repaired homes for all, Arabs and Jews”.
Lod is a city inside what is now Israel that had been known as Lydda before Israel was created and Lydda and hundreds of Palestinian villages were partly or fully depopulated by Israeli troops. The city remains about 30% Palestinian – and is touted by the Israeli government as an example of coexistence.
However, the Palestinian residents of Lod cite discrimination against them in all areas: housing, education, access to resources, and infrastructure.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted after Yigal’s death that he “shares the family’s grief” and that the Israeli authorities “will find and hold accountable those who participated in this murder. No one will escape punishment.” Netanyahu has made no statement about the grief of the over 200 families in Gaza who lost loved ones due to the bombings that he authorized over the previous seven days.
Yigal was from Lod, in western Israel. Source: IMEMC
May 18, 2021: Adham Fayez Mousa Kashef, 20, was killed by Israeli army fire at the northern entrance of al-Biereh city, near Ramallah in central West Bank.
May 17, 2021: Ahmad Khalil al-Louh, 32, killed by an Israeli missile fried from a drone in Gaza city.
Medical sources said another Palestinian, identified as Yahia Mansour Ghaben, died from serious wounds he suffered, two days ago, during the extensive Israeli bombing of Beit Lahia.
In Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, the soldiers bombarded a home for the al-Masri family, wounding at least five Palestinians, including four children, in addition to causing a severe injury to one Palestinian in Wadi as-Salqa area, south of Deir al-Balah.
May 17, 2021: Ahmad Ziyad Hussein Sabbah, 28, was killed by an Israeli missile in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
May 17, 2021: Mohammad Hasan Abu Sam’aan, 32, was killed by Israeli missiles at the Maldives Café at Gaza city’s seaside.
May 17, 2021: Ahmad Fayez Arafat, 29, was killed by an Israeli missile in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
May 17, 2021: Obeida Akram Jawabra, 17, was killed by Israeli soldiers who shot him with live ammunition in the al-‘Arroub refugee camp, near the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
May 17, 2021: Ahmad Khalil Hejazi al-Louh, 24, was killed by Israeli missiles that struck a Cafe at Gaza seaside.
May 17, 2021: Husam Abu Harbeed, 36, killed by an Israeli missile in his home near Abu Haseera Junction, Gaza city.
May 17, 2021: Shaymaa’ Alaa Subhi Abu al-‘Auf, 21, was killed after the Israeli army fired missiles at homes in the al-Wehda Street, in Gaza city.