Teenagers allegedly beat an Arab bus driver unconscious overnight in Jerusalem

Driver says he lost four of his teeth in attack, passed out and awoke to ‘faces full of hate’; police open investigation amid spate of similar attacks on bus drivers in capital

Teenagers assaulted a driver on a local Jerusalem bus route overnight until he lost consciousness, knocking out four of his teeth, a labor union said in a statement Sunday.

The teens hit the side of the No. 2 Superbus line when it stopped at a red light near the Ramot Junction in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood, without any passengers on board, the statement from Koach LaOvdim said.

When the driver rolled down his window, the teens beat him severely, and he lost consciousness for about two minutes, according to the statement.

“When I came to, I felt blood in my mouth. Around me were curses and yelling and faces full of hate,” the driver, identified by the initial M, is quoted as saying by the organization. “I got frightened and went through the intersection, but still wasn’t fully conscious and felt that I was losing control. Fortunately, I managed to park the bus.”

After he escaped, the driver contacted police and was taken to a hospital, the labor union said.

In a statement Sunday morning, police said they launched an investigation into the assault. No arrests have been reported.

There have been repeated occurrences of Jewish teenagers attacking Arab bus drivers, particularly in Jerusalem, over the past year, often carried out by ultra-Orthodox youth.

In December, two teenagers from the largely Haredi neighborhood of Ramot were arrested for assaulting an Arab Israeli sanitation worker and attacking a bus driver, leaving him with a broken arm.

Israel Ganon, chairman of the Bus Drivers Association, told The Times of Israel last year that authorities are doing nothing to stop the phenomenon: “There is no punishment by judges, there is no enforcement from police, and this leads to the violence; it’s a very simple situation,” he said. “We are very angry at the police and the mayor because no one is doing anything to stop this.”

In February, Koach LaOvdim said that there was a 30% increase in attacks last year compared to 2024. In Jerusalem alone, Koach LaOvdim recorded 100 cases of physical assault in which a driver had to be taken for medical care.

In January, a group of Haredi teenage protesters surrounded a bus in the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Romema at the tail end of a mass anti-enlistment rally in the capital. The large crowd gathered around to prevent the bus from driving, reportedly threatening the driver, and after several minutes he drove into the crowd, killing a 14-year-old boy at the scene.