Three Arab men shot dead in separate northern Israel shootings within 24 hours
The victims include a prison inmate traveling to a rehabilitative work program, as the Arab community's homicide toll for the year reaches 197.
By Vanessa Lopez ·
Three Arab men were fatally shot in separate incidents across northern Israel over a 24-hour period on Thursday and Friday, according to first responders and the Israel Prison Service. Among those killed was a prisoner who had been on his way to a rehabilitative work program.
The violence began on Thursday evening in the northern town of Tamra, where 22-year-old Yousef Hamad was shot dead. Another man sustained moderate wounds in the same shooting, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said.
Later that evening, a second deadly shooting took place in Baqa al-Gharbiya. The victim was identified as Ahmad Jamal, a 25-year-old resident of Qalanswe. Medics said three other men, aged 22, 25 and about 30, were seriously wounded in that attack, while a fourth man, aged 27, was moderately hurt.
Also on Thursday evening, a 45-year-old man was seriously wounded in a shooting in Nazareth, and a 25-year-old man was seriously wounded in a stabbing in Hadera, according to police and medics. Police said they were investigating the incidents, which they described as either "criminal" or "apparently criminal" in nature, rather than nationalist or terror-motivated.
On Friday morning, 37-year-old Eyal al-Heib, an inmate at Hermon Prison, was shot dead at a bus stop near the Nahal Tsalmon Interchange on Route 65, west of the Sea of Galilee. A resident of the northern Bedouin town of Tuba-Zangariyye, al-Heib was convicted of manslaughter in 2015 and was serving an 18-year sentence. A civilian and then medics attempted to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene, Magen David Adom said. The prison service said he had been heading to his day job at a "rehabilitative factory," and police said they were searching for suspects.
The killings brought the number of confirmed Arab homicide victims since the start of the year to 197, down from 215 at the same point last year, according to the Abraham Initiatives coexistence watchdog.
Separately, police said Thursday afternoon that they were working to determine the cause of death of a woman in her 20s whose body was found with signs of injury in her home in a Bedouin hamlet in the south. Her brother, roughly 30 years old, was killed Thursday when the car he was driving collided with a bus at the southern Hatrurim Junction, according to Magen David Adom and media reports. It was unclear whether the siblings' deaths were connected.
The Abraham Initiatives has recorded an approximate doubling in annual homicide rates in Arab society since National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir took office in late 2022. According to the watchdog, last year was the bloodiest on record, with 252 victims. Arab citizens accounted for over 80 percent of homicide victims in Israel, despite making up roughly 20 percent of the population.
The watchdog has accused Ben Gvir of neglecting the surging violence in Arab society and gutting programs designed to confront the crime wave. Ben Gvir and his party have rejected the criticism, defending what they describe as increased police action.
