A man was shot dead on a street in the central city of Lod on Wednesday morning, raising the death toll of people killed in violent crime in the Arab community this year to 160.
According to the anti-violence advocacy group the Abraham Initiatives, the tally is more than double the figure for the same period last year.
Paramedics found the 39-year-old showing no vital signs, and declared him dead at the scene, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said in a statement.
Police said they launched an investigation into the shooting. The background of the incident was unclear.
Hours earlier, in a separate incident, an unknown assailant on a motorbike fired shots at the home of Tamra Mayor Suhail Diab. No injuries were reported.
Police arrested three suspects shortly after.
ירי בוצע הלילה לעבר ביתו של סוהיל דיאב, ראש עיריית טמרה. לא היו נפגעים באירוע. נפתחה חקירה@CBeyar pic.twitter.com/Lap8BOAV1z
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) August 30, 2023
“I trust the police to do their job,” Diab told Channel 12 news. “We as public representatives are being threatened. We will not let criminals take control of our lives and we will continue to serve the public, even as government symbols in Israel are harmed. The time has come for the state to get more involved.”
Several candidates in the upcoming local elections have been shot or have been threatened in recent weeks in attacks blamed on organized crime.
A candidate for mayor of Nazareth and two other men were shot and injured in the northern city Monday night.
In a shocking crime last week, four people were murdered in a mass shooting in the northern town of Abu Snan, one of them a mayoral candidate.
A day earlier, Tira’s municipal director, Abdul Rahman Kashua, was shot dead.
Also on Wednesday morning, two people were injured in separate shooting incidents in Umm al-Fahm.
Police said a 51-year-old man was moderately hurt when he was fired on while sitting in his vehicle.
In an apparently separate incident, a 56-year-old man was seriously wounded when shots were fired at his home. He was hospitalized at Haemek Hospital in Afula, police said.
Citing estimates that police sources shared with a senior municipal official, Zman Israel, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site, reported Tuesday that just 35% of those killed this year are believed to be in crime groups, most of them low-ranking “soldiers.”
Another quarter of the victims are relatives of gangsters but have no involvement in crime themselves, with some believed to have been slain in retaliation killings by rival outfits.
The remaining 40% of the victims were estimated to have killed for accumulating “gray market” debts, over local or business disputes that involved criminals, or for their political or communal activities that the gangs viewed as a threat.
Arab Israeli mourners carry the casket of Abdel Rahman Kashua, the director-general of the Arab city of Tira in Israel, who was gunned down at a gas station, during his funeral procession outside the Tira police station, on August 23, 2023. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
Others were simply caught in the crossfire.
These remaining homicides also include the killings of women and children by family members.
Most of the murders remain unsolved, with police apparently lacking precise intelligence about motives. They do, however, usually know whether those killed were part of the underworld as a result of the force’s efforts to keep tabs on gangs and their members.
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would involve the Shin Bet security service in assisting police operations in combating some crime in the Arab community, particularly when it came to crime related to municipal elections.
On Sunday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich agreed to finally release long-awaited funds to Arab municipalities that he had recently frozen over ostensible concerns they would reach criminal gangs, pending the implementation of an oversight mechanism.
Many Arab community say police have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence, which includes family feuds, mafia turf wars, and violence against women. The communities have also suffered from years of neglect by state authorities.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
