A driver tried to hit an 'Israel school'

Four young children and an adult escaped injury after an Indiana woman drove her car into what she thought was a Jewish school.

Investigators said the driver referred to the building as an "Israel school," IndyStar, part of the Paste BN Network, reported. The building, however, is associated with Radical Hebrew Israelites, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a "hate group," noting its increasingly antisemitic ideology.

Ruba Almaghtheh, 34, told Indianapolis police she had been watching TV news coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas and decided to plan an attack by crashing into the building. Her statement to police referenced "her people back in Palestine."

It was unknown early Monday if the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office would pursue hate crime charges, but Jewish advocates in the community said the woman's misidentification was tragic cause for continued caution. The incident is one of many violent incidents nationwide in the past month as the war triggers deep cultural divides.

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