Los Angeles (AFP) - A college professor was arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter over the death of a Jewish man who clashed with a pro-Palestinian protester in California, police said Thursday.
Loay Alnaji was arrested early Thursday over the death of Paul Kessler at a rally near Los Angeles earlier this month, and his bail will be set at $1 million, a Ventura County sheriff's statement said.
Kessler died from a head injury after falling to the ground. Police have not yet ruled out the possibility of a hate crime.
The incident took place during dueling pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies involving around 100 people on November 5 in Thousand Oaks, northwest of Los Angeles.
Police arriving at the scene found that Kessler, 69, had fallen backward and fatally struck his head on the ground. Witnesses said he had been involved in an argument with a pro-Palestinian protester.
He also had non-lethal injuries on his face, although it was not clear if he had been struck, and witnesses from both rallies gave police conflicting accounts of the confrontation.
Kessler died in hospital a day after the rallies.
The arrest came more than five weeks after an unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 sparked retaliatory bombing and a ground offensive by Israel, which vows to destroy the Palestinian militant group.
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel during the attack and around 240 people taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
In Gaza, more than 11,500 people, also mostly civilians, have been killed, officials in the Hamas-run territory have said.
Tensions have spiked and protests have taken place in the US and around much of the world, raising fears that violence could spill over.
In early October, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy was stabbed in an attack in Illinois, which police have linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. A 71-year-old male suspect has pleaded not guilty.
