Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday warned Israelis against vigilantism after an Eritrean man died from being mistakenly shot and beaten by a mob during an attack in which a soldier was killed.

"We are a law-abiding country. No one must take the law into their own hands," Netanyahu told officials from his Likud party after Sunday night's incident in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.

The Eritrean was shot by a security guard who believed he was a second attacker, then beaten by an angry mob.