Underworld Surveillance and Tragedy: The 2008 Bat Yam Beach Shooting Revisited
An in-depth look back at the 2008 Bat Yam beach shooting where Moti Hassin was targeted, resulting in the tragic death of innocent bystander Margarita Lautin while police watched.
July 28, 2008. The Tubago Beach in Bat Yam. Moti Hassin, Rami Amira, and Simantov Hatib are sitting at the "HaMifpeset" restaurant, as it was called in those days. For the other diners, it is just another summer afternoon. For the police, it was an observation point as part of surveillance over some of the most prominent figures in the criminal underworld at the time.
Detectives from the National Unit for Investigations of International and Serious Crime (Yahavol) closely tracked Hassin and Amira during those days. The goal was not merely to monitor them, but to understand the developing relationships within the circle of Yitzhak Abergil and the cracks forming within it.
The Underworld Power Struggle
At the center of the surveillance was, among other things, the growing closeness between Hassin, Amira, and Shalom Domrani. Police viewed this move as a potential catalyst that could alter the balance of power and lead to new conflicts. Law enforcement sought to study the internal friction within the Abergil faction and the emerging ties between Hassin, Amira, and external criminal figures.
And then, within seconds, the surveillance turned into a shooting incident. Two armed men arrived at the beach and opened fire at the group. According to the indictment filed later, the targets included Hassin and Rami Amira. The people sitting at the location began to flee. One of the bullets struck Margarita Lautin, a mother of two who was sitting on the beach at the time with her family. She was fatally wounded and died.
"We caught a murderer red-handed," says a senior Lahav officer familiar with the incident, emphasizing that the presence of undercover detectives in the area allowed for an unusually rapid pursuit.
Surveillance Under the Radar
According to the indictment, Ronen Ben-Adi arrived at the scene on a motorcycle prepared for him in advance. Following the shooting, he fled on the streets of Bat Yam, reached a pre-arranged meeting point, abandoned the motorcycle, and boarded a car driven by Shimon Sabah. The two men fled the scene but were intercepted shortly afterward by Yahavol detectives.
Despite the successful apprehension, a sense of discomfort remained within Lahav 433 regarding the fact that the murder occurred while police were already surveilling the targets. Critics and officers alike debated how a crime of this magnitude could unfold under the detectives' noses, even though the attack was entirely unexpected.
The Legacy of Moti Hassin
Behind the surveillance and pursuit lay a much broader story. At the time, Moti Hassin was considered one of the most significant figures in Yitzhak Abergil's inner circle. A former senior Yamar Tel Aviv officer who knew Hassin closely describes him as an individual of exceptional status within the criminal world.
"He was very senior. He was Abergil's deputy," the officer says. "He was considered one of the pillars of Abergil's organization." Yet alongside his status, Hassin was notorious for his ability to maintain absolute silence during interrogations, never implicating his associates.
For the Lautin family, that day changed their lives forever. For the police, it remains one of the most painful episodes of that era: an underworld assassination attempt in broad daylight that claimed the life of an innocent woman, yet ended in the swift arrest of the perpetrators thanks to intelligence gathered by the police.
