Two Eritreans killed in Tel Aviv street brawl: Israel police

A street brawl between groups of Eritreans supporting and opposing their country's regime left two Eritrean men dead in Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv on Saturday, Israeli police said.

The two groups clashed in Tel Aviv's HaHagana street, with some throwing stones at each other, injuring eight other people, the police said in a statement.

"Two Eritrean men were killed in the clash," the statement said, citing medical sources.

The police did not specify how the two men died but Israeli media reported that they suffered stab wounds.

An AFP photographer saw one body covered in white cloth on a footpath at the scene of the clash.

Police have opened an investigation, their statement said.

Similar clashes erupted between two rival Eritrean groups in September 2023, in which dozens were injured, including Israeli policemen who tried to quell the unrest.

Thousands of asylum seekers from Eritrea are living in Israel, most of whom arrived illegally from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula years ago.

They have settled in several impoverished neighbourhoods of the coastal city of Tel Aviv.

Eritrea has been led by authoritarian President Isaias Afwerki since its formal declaration of independence in 1993.

The east African country is one of the world's most isolated states and sits near the bottom of global rankings for press freedom, human rights, civil liberties and economic development.