JERUSALEM — An Eritrean asylum seeker who was mistaken for an assailant in an attack Sunday at a bus station in Beersheba was shot by a security guard and then beaten by a mob.
Early Monday, he died of his wounds.
Graphic video images of the beating appeared to show people kicking the Eritrean man, identified by the Israeli authorities as Haptom Zerhom, 29, and hurling a chair and bench at his head as he lay injured on the ground.
The Hebrew newspaper Yediot Aharonot wrote that Zerhom had been running from danger when an Arab gunman shot and killed an Israeli soldier and Zerhom was mistaken for a second attacker "just because of the color of his skin."
Eritrean friends of Zerhom who gathered in a Tel Aviv park Monday to mourn him said he had come to Israel four years ago to escape the difficulties in his home country.
Zerhom, whose nickname was Mila, had been working for the past year at a plant nursery in Ein Habesor, a village in southern Israel. His manager, Saguy Malachi, said Zerhom had gone to Beersheba to renew his work visa. Malachi described him as a "dedicated and pleasant worker."
"It seems he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.
During a surge of knife and gun attacks this month by Palestinians, the Israeli authorities have been praising the security forces and civilians for their vigilance and rapid response. The government has loosened the requirements for a gun license, and Israelis with gun permits have been encouraged to carry their weapons.
Eight Israelis have been killed this month and at least 18 suspected attackers have been fatally shot at the scene by Israeli security forces and civilians.
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and other Palestinian leaders have accused Israel of carrying out "extrajudicial executions." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said that Israelis have been acting in self-defense and that the police have responded to violent attacks as any police force would.
But the case of Zerhom has shaken Israeli confidence.
The commander of the Negev police, Amnon Kalai, said detectives would investigate the people who took part in the beating, at least one of whom expressed regret on Israeli television. The man, who was not identified by name, said he had thrown the bench at Zerhom.
"Out of fear you don't know what to do," he told Channel 2 News. "I did what I did but to my regret, he wasn't a terrorist."
Speaking in the Knesset, or Israeli Parliament, on Monday, Netanyahu warned that "nobody may take the law into their own hands."
The gunman in Sunday's attack, who was not acting in concert with Zerhom, killed an Israeli soldier, Sgt. Omri Levi, 19, at the Beersheba bus station, and wounded at least nine others. He was killed in a shootout with police officers as he tried to flee.
The Israeli authorities identified the gunman as a Bedouin Arab citizen of Israel from the area. Bedouins have rarely been involved in armed attacks in Israel, so the development highlighted the unpredictable and spiraling nature of the current wave of attacks across the country.
A dispute over a contested holy site in Jerusalem has fueled the recent surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence and heightened tensions among the Arab minority in Israel. The site is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
Palestinian leaders have called for an international protection force at the contested site, and officials say France has been pressing for a U.N. proposal that would include the presence of international observers at the compound.
The Palestinians have accused Israel of plotting to divide the site, which is administered by an Islamic trust under Jordanian auspices. Israel vehemently denies the charges. Under the current arrangement, Israel is in charge of overall security, and non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound but not to pray there.
Secretary of State John Kerry said in Madrid on Monday, "We don't contemplate any change, but nor does Israel. Israel understands the importance of that status quo."
He added that it was necessary "to make sure everybody understands what that means."
Kerry said Israel, Jordan and the United States opposed the idea of an international presence.
"We are not seeking outsiders or others to come in," Kerry said, adding, "What we need is clarity."
Kerry is expected to meet in Berlin this week with Netanyahu, and later with Abbas and King Abdullah II of Jordan.
But the estranged Israeli and Palestinian leaders seem far from reconciliation. Netanyahu has accused Abbas of blatantly lying and helping to foment the violence against Israelis.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee, told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday that the Palestinians welcomed the French initiative for international observers.
"We know that Israel is changing the status quo in Haram al-Sharif," she said, using an Arabic name for the sacred compound. "They say no, they're not."
International observers, she added, could perhaps "start holding Israel accountable."
The suspect in the central bus station attack was identified as Muhannad al-Okbi, 21, from the Hura area, a few miles east of Beersheba. Okbi's mother came from the Palestinian coastal territory of Gaza and was entitled to residency in Israel under a family reunification clause by virtue of her marriage to an Arab citizen of Israel, according to Shin Bet, Israel's security agency.
The police said Okbi had entered the bus station Sunday evening with a pistol and a knife, fatally shot Levi and grabbed his weapon.
The assailant continued firing, wounding several other soldiers, as well as police officers and civilians, before he was shot by the police.
Bedouin leaders condemned the Beersheba attack.
"We utterly and unreservedly condemn this despicable act and reject violence of any sort," Mohammed Alnabari, the mayor of the Bedouin town of Hura, said in a statement. "We condemn this act on behalf of the entire Bedouin society and wish to make clear that you cannot be both a terrorist and a citizen of the country; the two are inherently contradictory."