Had Yair Elalouf not intervened when a group of young men was beating three Arab Israelis with clubs and chains, the Aug. 23 attack on the Kiryat Haim beach could have ended in murder on the grounds of nationality.

"I saw a group of young [Jewish] Russians beating [the Arabs] with clubs and chains. They had jumped three people there, who were already unconscious on the ground, covered with blood," Elalouf told Ynet. "One of them asked me for help, said they were going to kill them. I went there, I got the young guys away from there and called the police. I did what I thought was right, to help them." According to Elalouf, none of the 70 or 80 other people on the beach did anything.

The three victims are residents of the Arab Israeli town of Shfaram. One is a doctor at Tel Aviv’s Suraski Medical Center, another a nurse at the Sheba Medical Center. The three sustained bruises and cuts and were taken to Rambam Hospital in the nearby city of Haifa. They told police that a group of young Jewish men had asked them if they were Arabs, then came back with clubs, chains and knives and beat them.

Deeply humiliated, the three victims of the brutal beating asked police and the media to refrain from naming them and showing their faces. The cousin of the nurse told Al-Monitor that his relative cares for Jews and Arabs at the hospital where he works regardless of their religion or race and is dedicated to his work. The three friends do not want to be pitied and therefore asked to remain anonymous, he added, also on condition of anonymity.