Police on Friday announced the arrest of four suspects over the killing of a woman in Haifa this week, two of whom are her children.
Nur Riyan, 40, was shot dead Thursday at an apartment in the northern coastal city. Her partner was present but managed to escape the apartment with moderate injuries and later gave testimony to police.
Along with Riyan’s 18- and 20-year-old sons, who were detained while heading to the West Bank, police arrested two other suspects in connection to the killing, one of whom is a minor. The pair are her neighbors, according to the Haaretz daily.
Following the arrests, a court ordered the four remain in custody for a week.
Police said that Riyan’s 16-year-old daughter, the only one of her seven children living with her, was not home at the time and has since been moved to protective care.
Riyan, originally from Kafr Bara, divorced her husband several years ago and later moved to a domestic violence center following alleged threats from her family, before moving to the center of the country and eventually Haifa.
Investigators also questioned her ex-husband over death but he is not currently a suspect.
#عربي #עברית قائد لواء الساحل داني ليفي:”تم القاء القبض على المشتبه بهم بالتورط بجريمة قتل المرحومة نور ريان”!ממ”ז חוף ניצב דני לוי:”עצרנו מספר חשודים ברצח נור ריאן מחיפה”! pic.twitter.com/uT1zk8MP8i
— |فرات نصار|פוראת נסאר|FURAT NASSAR (@nassar_furat) September 1, 2023
In their announcement of the arrests, police did not specify any possible motives for the killing. Initial reports Thursday said police believed the incident was a failed attempted criminal underworld hit targeting Riyan’s boyfriend, but they were also looking into all possible scenarios.
According to the Abraham Initiatives, an anti-violence advocacy group, Riyan’s death raised this year’s death toll in the Arab community from violent crime to 162 — more than double the figure for the same period last year — including nine women. The figure has since gone up to 163, after a man was shot dead Thursday evening at a supermarket in the Haifa suburb of Fureidis.
Following Riyan’s killing, thousands of people took part in a protest rally in Haifa excoriating the police for failing to curb the wave of violent crime. Joint List MK Ayman Odeh, Ra’am chief Mansour Abbas and Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz — a former senior police official — took part in the rally.
Protesters carried coffins representing the members of the community who have been murdered this year, closing down streets as they marched through the center of the city.
