2 killed in Kafr Qasim criminal shooting, taking year’s Arab violent death toll to 100
One of the victims was son of man killed in 2016 terror attack; suspect arrested, motive said to be family feud; video shows diners taking cover in central city as gunman opens fire nearby
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Two men were killed in a criminal shooting in Kafr Qasim on Friday night, taking the violent death toll in the Arab community to 100 so far this year.
The two were shot outside a restaurant in the central city, with video from the scene showing diners taking cover amid shrieks and a cry for “help.”
The men were taken to the hospital in critical condition, where they were pronounced dead.
The two victims were named as cousins Uday Shaaban, 28, and Said Shaaban, 29.
The Haaretz daily said the men were from Lod and that police believed the shooting came amid a feud between two families in the city.
According to the Ynet news site, Uday Shaaban was the son of Amin Shaaban, who was shot dead in a Tel Aviv terror attack in January 2016. Nashat Milhem killed Amin Shaban, a taxi driver, hours after killing two people at a bar on Dizengoff Street.
עודאי וסעיד שעבאן נורה למוות הערב מחוץ למסעדה באזור תעשייה סמוך לכפר קאסם. לפי נתוני יוזמות אברהם מתחילת שנת 2025 100 ערבים קיפחו את חייהם בנסיבות הקשורות לפשיעה ואלימית https://t.co/4kGUvbQige pic.twitter.com/xcYycXHFiS
— Yanal Jabarin ينال جبارين | ינאל ג׳בארין (@JbareenYanal) May 30, 2025
Uday Shaaban was reportedly set to celebrate his recent engagement with a party on Sunday.
Said Shaaban was a father of two.
In a relatively rare occurrence, police said they had arrested a suspect — the 22-year-old resident of Ramla was arrested on Route 40 a short time after the shooting.
The Abraham Initiatives coexistence watchdog, which tracks violence in the Arab community, said the deaths of the two men took the year’s toll to 100, including 87 killed in shootings.
The organization said that at the same point in 2024, 87 people had been killed.
תיעוד דרמטי: 2 נרצחו בירי בכפר קאסם – במסעדה ליד התחבאו מתחת לשולחנותhttps://t.co/XPNuPWuvKI pic.twitter.com/djdUGbsXMD
— ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) May 30, 2025
The watchdog has recorded an unprecedented rise in violent crime in the Arab community in the first two years in office of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose portfolio includes the police.
Ben Gvir’s first year in office, 2023, saw murder rates in the Arab community soar to their highest ever, and roughly double what they had been the previous year. The minister had gutted a program put in place by his predecessor Omer Barlev and Arab municipal leaders to combat crime in the Arab community.
In a belated report earlier this year, Ben Gvir’s office confirmed that homicides in the Arab communities had more than doubled in 2023. His office has yet to release data for 2024.
The vast majority of Arab sector murder cases are unsolved by law enforcement, with many community leaders criticizing police for not doing enough to deter violent crime in Arab locales.
The Times of Israel Community.