B’nei Menashe Youth Stabbed to Death In Teenage Gang Up
Updated: Dec 31, 2023
(October 8, 2022) Yoel Lhanghal, an 18-year-old B’nei Menashe boy from Nof ha-Galil, was stabbed to death on Thursday night, October 6, in a fight in the town of Kiryat Shmonah in Israel’s far north. The police are said to have arrested the suspected fatal knifer, a 15-year-old boy from the town of Hatzor ha-G’lilit, as well as number of other boys.
The fight broke out shortly before midnight when Lhanghal, whose family made Aliyah from Manipur earlier this year and who had traveled from Nof ha-Galil to Kiryat Shmonah with another B’nei Menashe boy and girl, got into an argument with local teenagers. The cause of the fight remains unclear. Neither of Lhanghal’s friends who were with him could be reached for comment.
The fight started at the top of a flight of stairs in a small park adjoining a residential neighborhood. A video clip of it, CCTV footage, shows first words and then shoves and blows being exchanged between Lhangal and a local youth, after which he was attacked by a dozen or more of the boy’s friends. Breaking loose from them, he ran down the stairs, at the bottom of which he once again squared off with one of the boys. Two or three others joined in against him and it was then that the stabbing took place. Reportedly, Lhanghal was stabbed several times by different assailants. The video’s last frame shows him collapsing on the bottom stair with his two friends by his side while his assailants flee. An ambulance was called and Lhanghal was taken to Ziv Hospital in Safed, where his death was declared.
Lhangal’s funeral will be held in Nof Hagalil on Sunday. Israel’s shocked B’nei Menashe community had little time to react to news of the event before the Sabbath set in, cutting off communication by phone and in the social media. Our Newsletter will keep readers posted on furthers developments.
