Guwahati: In a shocking incident, 18-year-old Yoel Lehingahel, who hailed from Northeast India’s Jewish community of Bnei Menashe and immigrated to Israel less than a year ago, was stabbed to death in a fight at a birthday party in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, media reports said on Friday.
The teenager, who immigrated to Israel from India with his family earlier this year, travelled north from his home in Nof HaGalil to visit a friend and fellow immigrant from India, the report stated.
A brawl involving more than 20 teens broke out at a birthday party, which was attended by Lehingahel, Meir Paltiel, who works with the community of Indian Jewish immigrants to Israel, told the news portal Ynet.
Police reportedly arrested a 15-year-old resident from the nearby town of Chatzor Haglilit on suspicion of being involved in the incident.
On Friday, police said they had detained seven teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15, according to the Times of Israel newspaper.
Lehingahel was a member of the Bnei Menashe Jewish community that has been immigrating to Israel over the past two decades from the Northeast Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram.
The Bnei Menashe are believed to be descendants of the biblical tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Lost Tribes exiled from the Land of Israel more than 2,700 years ago.
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