Driver Arrested After Jerusalem Faction Protest Injury, Says He Panicked

Police on Monday arrested a 20-year-old Bedouin driver from southern Israel on suspicion that he struck a yeshiva student during a Jerusalem Faction protest on Thursday near the Ben Shemen interchange on Highway 1. The injured man is also 20. The protest had blocked the highway in opposition to arrests of yeshiva students.

According to the report, the student was hit by a car passing through the area, and the driver kept going without stopping. In his police questioning, the suspect said, "They hit my car and I got scared, so I stepped on the gas." He claimed he felt in danger when demonstrators surrounded his vehicle and that he accelerated out of fear. After the initial interrogation, he was released under restrictive conditions, and the investigation is continuing.

The report said the injured yeshiva student is not cooperating with investigators at this stage, which is slowing the case. Police are still gathering witness accounts and footage from the scene, and are examining whether the driver acted out of real fear or whether he could have avoided the collision.

The Highway 1 incident was one of two hit-and-run cases in less than an hour during Thursday's Jerusalem Faction protests. In the second case, at the Geha interchange, a 22-year-old driver from Kafr Qasim hit a 93-year-old pedestrian and continued driving. She was questioned on Friday at the Bnei Brak-Ramat Gan station and then released under restrictive conditions, saying she panicked and feared the ultra-Orthodox protesters might lynch her.