Police confirmed that a corpse found near Tel Aviv's Tel Baruch beach on Saturday morning was a 59-year-old man attacked with his family Friday night on Tel Aviv's Tel Baruch beach by a drunken gang of Arabs.
The man, Leonard "Arik" Karp, 58, was killed while sitting on a bench with his wife and daughter. The Arabs made a comment about the daughter, and Karp responded verbally. The Arabs then started beating him and his family. His wife and daughter fled, with some of the Arabs pursuing them from the beachfront promenade, whille he was allegedly further beaten and dragged into the water and drowned.
Police have arrested seven suspects: five young men aged 20 of the Arab village of Jaljuliya and two young women from Petah Tikva, aged 17 and 19.
Karp's wife and 25-year-old daughter fled the scene, and were chased by the youths who continued to assault them. The wife sustained light injuries and the daughter, 25, managed to telephone the police.
When the women returned to the beachfront promenade they found that Karp had disappeared.
Hours later, Karp's badly beaten body was recovered from a waterfront near the Electric Corporation building. The Arab gang then fled to the Horeshim forest. One of the women from Petah Tikva later contacted the police, confessing her role in the crime, reconstructing the events at the scene, leading to the arrests.
Asst.-Cmdr. David Gaz, of the Yarkon sub-district police, described the attack as "a severe incident of thuggery," adding that police presence had been increased to prevent similar attacks.
"This is a serious act of hooliganism, and we will enforce our presence in the area. The Israel Police are deployed in order to prevent such acts, and that is how we managed to locate the suspects within such a short time."
Commander Ilan Mor, of the police's Tel Aviv district, told Ynet that "in a case like this, in which someone tries to create a provocation, an arrest should ideally be made a minute before an incident breaks out".
"In dozens of cases it happens and this time we weren't successful. It's a frustrating feeling. I think last night was a failure when you look at the outcomes, but we will move on," he added.
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