By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

An Israeli national was the alleged target of a hate crime incident early yesterday morning, police said.

In a radio interview yesterday, 66-year-old Samuel Haimovich said he was awakened by a loud shattering sound from his coffee shop along La Salle Avenue in Bacolod City’s Barangay Villamonte.

When he turned the lights on, he found his shop’s glass window was shattered by a huge rock with the words “Free Palestine.”

Haimovich said no one was hurt in the incident.

According to the victim, he decided to settle down in Bacolod City back in 2017 after he married a Filipina.

Police Station 4 is now investigating the incident, and initial motives for the attack may be related to the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian-militant group Hamas.

It can be recalled that Hamas launched a massive attack against Israel in October last year.

The attack also killed two overseas Filipino workers in Israel, one of whom was a resident of Negros Occidental’s Cadiz City./DGB, WDJ