Jerusalem: A teenager, from the north-eastern Indian Jewish community of Bnei Menashe and immigrated to Israel from India less than a year ago, was stabbed to death after a fight broke out at a birthday party in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, media reports said on Friday.
The Police in Israel have arrested eight residents, all between the age groups of 13 to 15 for stabbing an Indian-origin teenager to death at a birthday party in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, local media reported.
Yoel Lehingahel, 18, who immigrated to Israel from India with his family earlier this year, travelled north from his home in Nof Hagalil to visit a friend and fellow immigrant from India, media reports said.
A fight involving more than 20 teens broke out at a birthday party which was attended by Lehingahel, Meir Paltiel, who works with the community of Indian Jewish immigrants to Israel, told news portal Ynet.
In a Facebook post, Ronen Plot, Mayor of Nof Hagalil, described Lehingahel as a “happy” boy who had expressed his desire to join an IDF combat unit.
“A whole life cut short because of an act of violence, which in my eyes was an act of terror in every way,” Plot said.
Lehingahel was a member of the Bnei Menashe Jewish community that has been immigrating to Israel over the past two decades from the north-eastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram.
Some 3,000 Bnei Menashe have immigrated to Israel in recent years, with another 7,000 remaining in India.
They are believed to have descended from the biblical tribe of Manasseh, one of the 10 Lost Tribes exiled from the land of Israel more than 2,700 years ago.
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