A 30-year-old Israeli woman named Tamar Ben-Haim has revealed details of a violent encounter that occurred earlier this month between her and a US Secret Service agent in Jerusalem shortly before the US President Joe Biden’s visit to the country in July.
As Ben-Haim explained during an exclusive interview with Fox News, she was returning home from a friend’s residence past midnight when a “large man” appeared before her.
"Before I could understand what was happening, I felt a hard slap across my face, and he immediately began punching me in the chest," the woman said, explaining that she was looking at her phone and had her headphones on at the time.
The assailant kept hitting her, almost as if she were a “punching bag,” Tamar alleged.
"I was in total shock," she said. "He was so strong…I couldn't even attempt to defend myself. In my head, I was thinking, ‘you won’t survive this. This is the end of your life.'"
The attack ceased when another man, who apparently knew the attacker, managed to restrain him, thus allowing Tamar to slip away and contact the police. However, even though she managed to take a photo of the two men walking away and send it to the police, she did not hear from the authorities in the days that followed, Tamar alleged.
She only learned that the man who allegedly assaulted her was apparently a member of the Secret Service’s Counter Assault Team when a local TV channel requested an interview with her.
"When I heard who he was, I just felt more anger, more hurt," Ben-Haim said. "He’s not a homeless person off the street. He's a trained fighter."
The woman also alleged that US officials investigating the incident haven’t contacted her, and that local police only informed her that her attacker had left the country.
"You can come to another country, beat someone almost to death and just disappear with zero consequences?" she complained. "This is not someone from a third-world country. America is the example of the world, and he works for the president. They just shipped him back to where he came like nothing ever happened, and they expect me to just move on with my life."
Two weeks ago, a US Secret Service member ended up being sent home from Jerusalem following allegations of a physical encounter between him and a local woman.
The agency said in a statement at the time that the Israeli police briefly detained and questioned the agent before releasing him “without charges.”