Basketball fans arrested suspected of planning to throw flares at game

Police arrested on Sunday 13 fans of the Hapoel Holon basketball club suspected of planning to hurl firecrackers at a game Sunday night between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem at Tel Aviv's Nokia stadium.

The arrests comes after an incident last week where a fan threw a firecracker which severely injured the hand of a security guard at a game between Hapoel Holon and Hapoel Jerusalem.

Hapoal Holon fans are suspected of being responsible for last week's incident, and are believed to have planned a similar act on Sunday to dupe the public into believing that it is in fact Hapoel Jerusalem fans who are violent.

Police officers raided the suspects and confiscated some 600 firecrackers, detonators and weapons, in addition to a small amount of drugs and stolen property.

The suspects are residents of Ramat Gan, Holon and Lod, and are believed to have planned to break up the game by throwing firecrackers onto the basketball court.

Police raided the fans after receiving information about their alleged intentions.

Four Hapoel Holon fans were arrested last week following the security guard's injury in Jerusalem on suspicion of having been involved in the incident.