A hand grenade was thrown early on Sunday morning at a Japanika branch still under construction in Hadera, Sport5 reported, the latest strike in a weeks-long wave of attacks on the sushi chain owned by Beitar Jerusalem's owner, Barak Abramov.
No one was hurt. The grenade hit the commercial section of a new residential development, where the Japanika outlet had not yet opened, causing damage to the site rather than to any person, according to the report. Police were called to the scene and cordoned off the area to investigate.
It is far from an isolated incident. Japanika branches around the country have been hit by grenades, gunfire and arson attempts over recent weeks, with locations in Afula, Netanya, Kiryat Ono, Ramat Gan, Givatayim, Herzliya and Rosh Pina all targeted, according to Hebrew media reporting from Ynet, Walla and Kan.
Abramov built Japanika into a nationwide chain of more than 40 branches through his Landora Group, before buying Beitar Jerusalem — the club he has supported since childhood — from Moshe Chogeg in 2022, taking on roughly 60 million shekels of accumulated debt in the process.
Police suspect the attacks are fallout from a feud between the Mosli and Jarushi crime organisations. Investigators believe Abramov, who first grew close to members of the Mosli family after buying Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv in 2016, shifted his allegiance toward the Jarushi side for protection following an armed robbery at his home in 2023 — a move detectives think was seen as a betrayal by the Mosli camp and made his restaurant chain a proxy target.
Abramov has given testimony to police as part of the investigation. He has previously told Ynet that the violence engulfing his restaurant business would not spill over into Beitar Jerusalem, insisting the club's football operations remain separate from his commercial troubles.
Beitar itself has not been directly targeted in the wave of attacks and opened its 2026/27 season this month with no reported change to security arrangements at Teddy Stadium. Still, the escalating campaign against its owner's other business interests continues to hang over the club just as the new campaign gets under way.
Police said the Hadera case remains under investigation, with detectives examining whether it is linked to the broader dispute. No arrests had been announced in connection with Sunday's incident specifically.
