South Tel Aviv family says SSQ gang violence forced them to leave neighborhood

A family in south Tel Aviv says gang violence by youths from the SSQ group forced them to leave the neighborhood after a series of attacks on their son and daughter, along with direct threats against the family and their business.

SSQ is a violent street gang active in south Tel Aviv and made up largely of illegal minors from communities in the area, including Sudanese, Eritrean and Filipino backgrounds. The family says the gang has built a reputation in the neighborhood for robberies, assaults, intimidation and targeting local residents, especially teenagers.

The family says it has lived in the same area for 13 years, built its life there, raised its children there and runs its business there. According to the family, the situation in south Tel Aviv has grown steadily worse and many other families in the area are dealing with the same reality.

Son robbed at knifepoint

The first attack came about a month after the family’s son celebrated his bar mitzvah. The family says he used his gift money to buy himself an iPhone 17 in Miami.

According to the account, older boys from the SSQ gang stopped him in the neighborhood, arrived on electric scooters, held a knife to his neck, stole the phone and forced him to hand over his iCloud password so they could erase it on the spot in front of him.

The family says it went to the police, and the suspects were arrested the very next day.

Second assault after the complaint

The family says the violence only escalated after that first arrest.

Several days later, more youths from the same gang attacked the boy again, beat him badly, broke three of his teeth and told him he was a snitch. They warned him that if he did not go back and say the incident never happened, it would end much worse.

From that moment on, the family says it stopped allowing him to walk alone.

Threats against the family and attack on 12-year-old daughter

About a month later, the threats reached the family directly. According to the account, gang members drove past the family business and shouted that the daughter would be next if the case was not canceled.

The next day, the family’s 12-year-old daughter was attacked after school by a group of boys and girls from SSQ. The family says she was beaten, had her hair pulled out, suffered a broken tooth and was robbed of her iPhone 17, which she had bought with bat mitzvah money in Miami.

The attackers also filmed the assault and uploaded the lynch attack online, according to the family.

Third attack in the neighborhood

About a month later, during the war, the family’s son saw on Instagram that police had carried out an operation against SSQ. He went out with a friend to get some air and sat in a park one street from home.

According to the family, six more gang members jumped out of the bushes, beat him with a bicycle lock, robbed him and stole the replacement iPhone his parents had bought after the first robbery, along with his electric bicycle.

Police advised the family to leave

At that stage, the family says police told them the smartest thing they could do was move away and continue the case from a safe location.

According to the account, police said they had names of those involved and were ready to move forward with arrests, but wanted the family to continue the legal process only after getting out of the neighborhood and reaching safety.

The family says police worked hard and moved quickly, but the courts kept releasing the suspects back onto the street. That, the family says, is the reality facing residents in south Tel Aviv: violent gang members return again and again, while law-abiding families are the ones forced to leave.