On 18 October 2015, a gunman shot and killed 19-year-old Israeli soldier Omri Levy in a bus station in Beersheba.

He was shot eight times by police and was kicked and beaten by four Israelis as he lay wounded, while bystanders shouted profanities at him.

[4] In response to the lynching, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that citizens should not take the law into their own hands.

[14] A prison officer who took part in the beating told media that he had seen Zarhum lift his hands towards his head, and attacked him in the belief that he was a terrorist who had not been "neutralized" and that he might have been reaching for a weapon.

At least one of the wounded Israeli soldiers, 19-year-old Daniel Harush, was shot and critically injured by a fellow security officers who mistook him for a terrorist.

[6] The gunman was identified by authorities as 21-year-old Muhand al-Okabi (Mohind al-Okbi, Muhannad al-Aqabi, Muhanad al-Uqbi), an Israeli from the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev.

[23] The shooter's brother, 20-year-old Omar al-Okabi, allegedly knew that Muhand had acquired a gun and that he had increasingly radical beliefs.

[26] Authorities detained four Israelis, David Moyal, Evyatar Damari, Yaakov Shamba and Ronen Cohen,[27] who were involved in beating Zarhum.

In 2018 it offered a plea bargain arrangement with the defendants with downgraded the charge from "causing injury with grave intent" which entails potentially 20 years in prison to "abuse of a helpless person.

In July that year Moyal was sentenced to 100 days of community service, 8 months of probation, and ordered to pay NIS 2,000 in compensation.

[31] The Israeli National Insurance Agency, however, rejected Zarhums family's claim for compensation because he entered the country illegally.

[23] Taleb Abu Arar, Member of Knesset for the United Arab List asserted al-Okbi's "innocence", and demanded that the shooting be investigated "again and again until the truth is uncovered".