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Italy Deports Two Foreign Nationals Suspected Of Attacking Milan Chabad Rabbi

Oct 7, 2026·2 min read

MILAN (VINnews) — Italy has expelled two foreign nationals suspected of attacking a Chabad rabbi at a Milan bus stop last month, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Monday.

Piantedosi said the men had been sent back to their countries of origin. “There is no place in our country for hatred and violence, and no antisemitic act will be tolerated,” he said.

The assault occurred Sept. 16 at a stop in Piazzale Bande Nere, in western Milan, near a neighborhood with a sizable Jewish population. Rabbi Tzemach Mizrahi, who leads the city’s central Chabad synagogue on Via Soderini, was waiting for a bus when three men surrounded him, shouted at him in Arabic, seized his hat, put it on and mocked him, according to accounts of the incident.

When Mizrahi began recording on his phone, one of the men kicked him from behind and shoved him off the sidewalk into the street. The three then left. Mizrahi later said about 20 people were at the stop and that none stepped in.

Milan’s Jewish community said video Mizrahi recorded helped police identify the suspects soon afterward.

Authorities said one of the men deported was a Moroccan national whose name was not released. The other was Battar Zahani, 21, a Tunisian national who was returned to Tunisia. His brother, Ilyes Zahani, 20, remains in Italy under court-ordered restrictions while he awaits trial.

Walker Meghnagi, head of Milan’s Jewish community, called the expulsions “wonderful news.”

In an interview after the attack, Mizrahi said he would keep wearing his rabbinic clothing and would not hide that he is Jewish. He said he would no longer let his children walk the streets alone.

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