Police are stepping up efforts to contain the activities of a radical Yemenite sect here following the shooting of a prison guard by three alleged sect members this week.
On Sunday, Benny Aviram, a 40-year-old security guard at Ramla’s Nitzan Prison, was seriously wounded when three men in a van opened fire on him as he was leaving his home.
Aviram managed to draw his gun and shoot at the assailants, wounding two of them. The third attacker got away.
Several members of the radical sect led by Uzi Meshulam were being held in Nitzan Prison since their arrests last spring, and police were investigating whether the suspects had been instructed by Meshulam or other sect members of carry out the murder attempt.
Meshulam and about 10 heavily armed members of his sect holed themselves up in a fortified house last March in the town of Yehud, located near Tel Aviv, protesting what they described as the “disappearance and sale of thousands of Yemenite children,” some 40 years ago.
They were dispersed following a massive police operation, Meshulam and several sect members were arrested in May.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
