A Muslim African migrant prays as comrades sleep at a children's playground in Levinsky Park in southern Tel Aviv.
The incident, which police described as “very serious,” took place in an old two-storey building in a poor neighbourhood near the city’s Mahane Yehuda market, just after 3am (12am GMT).
Police said the fire was started in a narrow entrance corridor which led to several apartments inside the building, home to 18 African migrants. On the external walls of the building, someone had sprayed Hebrew-language graffiti reading: “Get out of the neighbourhood.”
“There were 18 people living in the building and the corridor leads to all the apartments,” police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said, indicating that all the residents were of African origin.
“It is obvious that the people living there were targeted and not just the building,” he said, adding that at least four people were taken to hospital, suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.
The attack took place in a small street off Jaffa Road, with the building’s entrance corridor completely blackened by the fire, an AFP correspondent at the scene said, indicating it was the only entrance and exit from the apartments.
The rising number of Africans in Israel has hit the headlines in recent weeks, after a spike in racial tensions led to a riot in southern Tel Aviv, where tens of thousands of migrants live.
The incident occurred when a protest by 1 000 people turned violent after several far-right MPs made inflammatory speeches, with one referring to the migrants as “a cancer”.
Demonstrators went on the rampage, smashing up and looting African-run shops and property.
No one was injured, but police arrested 20 people on suspicion of vandalism.
Interior ministry statistics show there are approximately 60 000 African immigrants who have entered Israel illegally. Some are refugees fleeing persecution in their home nations but others are economic migrants. – AFP