Home Front Command soldier evacuated to hospital with light injuries after being beaten on Jerusalem street

An IDF soldier sustained light injuries Sunday evening when he was attacked on Polanski Street in Jerusalem, Ynet reported.

The soldier, 19, was treated at the scene by volunteer paramedics and later evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. Police were scouring the area for the assailants, who fled the scene.

The soldier, who serves in the Home Front Command, was in uniform but was not carrying a weapon. He told police that two young Arabs had beaten him without any provocation on his part.

One of the paramedics said, "I saw a soldier lying on the ground. He was in great pain and couldn´t get up. We treated him at the scene until he was evacuated."

The soldier complained of pain in his jaw and knee.

Last month two off-duty IDF soldiers were assaulted by a group of Arabs in Haifa. Initially it was thought that the attack was nationalistically-motivated, but on Sunday a judge released five of the six suspects to house arrest and ruled out the possibility that the soldiers were attacked because they are Jewish.

The attack was apparently a case of mistaken identity, as the assailants thought the soldiers had pelted their homes with stones. (Copyright 2012 © Yedioth Internet 03/25/12)