Due to his Israeli nationality, a man was assaulted by locals wielding a metal club in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu on Monday night as he returned to the hostel where he was staying, the man told Ynet.
"They hit me in the head with an iron club,” Almog Armoza told the Israeli outlet. “If I hadn't run away, there's a good chance I wouldn't be alive today."
Armoza said his attacker had heard him speaking in Hebrew.
"I had just recorded a message for a friend in Hebrew, which they heard, and at the end I took a huge blow to the head with an iron club," he said, speculating that his assailants targeted him due to his Israeli nationality.
Armoza says assault in Kathmandu was 'nationalistic'
“The most likely reason for this attack is nationalistic,” he told Ynet. They knew I was in the alley that leads to this hostel, and they didn't steal anything from me either. If the first blow had knocked me out, it could have ended differently."
According to Armoza, the location of his attack was very near his hostel. He told Ynet that the alley where the incident occured was just 150 meters away and that it was a normal route Israeli tourists use to get there.
"It's not something shady," he said of the alley.