2 said arrested after hospital brawl between guards and family of man shot dead

The relatives of a young man shot and killed in Shfaram on Tuesday were involved in violent scuffles with security guards at the hospital where he was taken.

Two people were arrested in connection with the violence, according to the Kan public broadcaster. There was no comment from police.

Iham Abu Saleh, 19, was taken to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa after he was shot on Tuesday.

CCTV footage from the hospital that was published by the Kan public broadcaster on Wednesday showed a number of men scuffling with security guards, although it was unclear how the incident began.

“The security guards were the last line [of defense] before they would have broken into the trauma room, where, besides the fatality, other patients in serious condition were being treated,” hospital security director Benny Keller told the news outlet.

Cases of violence against staff at medical facilities are not uncommon in Israel — in January, staff at public hospitals and clinics held a one-day strike in protest of a string of incidents.

אלימות קשה בבית החולים רמב"ם: קרוביו של אייהם סלאח, שנורה אתמול למוות בשפרעם, מתעמתים עם אנשי אבטחה בביה"ח. מנהל מחלקת הביטחון של רמב"ם: "המאבטחים היו הקו האחרון לפני פריצה לחדר בו מלבד ההרוג, היו מטופלים נוספים במצב קשה" | תיעוד@CBeyar (צילום: ביה"ח רמב"ם) pic.twitter.com/Lpzau0vrkO

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) August 9, 2023

According to Kan, Abu Saleh was known to police and had been previously arrested in Dubai on suspicion of involvement in an attempted hit.

Less than a day after Abu Saleh’s murder, police reportedly arrested five suspects — including the head of a criminal gang — in a raid on an apartment in Acre.

The report said the killing of Abu Saleh, who was a soccer player for a local team, was thought to be connected to a feud between two criminal organizations.

شفاعمرو: مقتل الشاب ايهم ابو صلاح (19 عامًا) متأثرًا بجروحه الحرجة إثر تعرضه لإطلاق نار!הצעיר שנרצח בשפרעם אייהם אבו סלאח בן 19 … pic.twitter.com/QioBqDP4Pw

— |فرات نصار|פוראת נסאר|FURAT NASSAR (@nassar_furat) August 8, 2023

The killing came as a violent crime wave continued to ravage Israel’s Arab community in record numbers.

Hours after Abu Saleh’s killing, two men in their 20s were killed in an unrelated drive-by shooting in the predominantly Bedouin town of Rahat.

They were the 143rd and 144th members of the Arab community killed as a result of the crime wave this year. In all of 2022, 116 Arab community members were killed in violent crime, and an annual record of 126 community members were killed in 2021.

Many community leaders blame the crime wave on the police, who they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence. They also point to decades of neglect and discrimination by government offices as the root cause of the problem.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday faced accusations of racism for refusing to release hundreds of millions of shekels budgeted for Arab Israeli municipalities.

The funds, aimed at boosting the economy, upgrading infrastructure, and fighting crime in Arab communities, were approved by the previous government, which included the Islamist Ra’am party alongside left-wing, centrist and right-wing parties that united in opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who campaigned on promises to beef up public safety and whose ministry oversees the police, has largely stayed quiet on the soaring crimewave, despite his ministry overseeing the police.

Thousands gathered in central Tel Aviv Sunday evening to call on the government to do more to curb soaring criminal violence in Arab communities.

Participants marched from Habima Square to the Tel Aviv Museum bearing symbolic coffins and holding signs accusing the government of paying lip service rather than tackling crime.