JERUSALEM

Israeli police launched Monday an investigation into the reported lynching of an innocent Eritrean man by a group of Israelis. 

According to Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, police are searching for the Israelis who allegedly attacked the man after he had already been shot by a security guard at a bus terminal in the southern city of Beersheba. 

The crowd purportedly thought -- mistakenly -- that the man was involved in an earlier attack at the terminal that left an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian suspect dead and another eight people injured. 

Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post reported that 26-year-old Mila Bansomo had died in hospital after having been "severely beaten" by the crowd. 

A video released on social media shows a group of people attacking a man lying prone on the floor. Several of those in the group can be seen kicking the man in the head repeatedly. 

Elizabeth Tsurkov, project director for Hotline for Refugees & Migrants, an Israeli rights group, wrote in a Facebook post that there had never been a reported attack in Israel by an African refugee. 

"The reason the violent mob made a connection between African refugees and terrorism is due to years of government incitement against refugees, including completely unfounded claims that they're somehow connected to terrorism," Tsurkov wrote.