9-year-old boy and his 20-year-old uncle shot dead in Lod

A nine-year-old boy and his 20-year-old uncle were shot dead in the central city of Lod on Friday evening, according to police.

A third person, a 28-year-old man, was wounded and was being treated at a hospital, according to first responders.

The three were evacuated to the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Be’er Yaakov where doctors pronounced the deaths of two of them.

The two victims were identified in Hebrew media as Muhammad Shaaban, 9, and his uncle, Imad Shaaban, 20, both residents of Lod.

Paramedics said that when they arrived at the scene there was a “huge commotion,” and the three wounded individuals were brought toward them on the street by others on the scene. They rushed them to the hospital while trying to treat them en route.

Police said they launched an investigation and that officers were gathering evidence from the scene and searching for suspects.

مصادر محلية: ضحايا جريمة إطلاق النار في مدينة اللد مساء اليوم هما الشاب عماد شعارين (20 عاماً) وابن شقيقه الطفل محمد (10 سنوات). pic.twitter.com/vJtCLmwU9I

— الجرمق الإخباري (@aljarmaqnet) December 29, 2023

The shooting came one day after a two-year-old boy was stabbed to death in front of his mother in Lod by a suspect who was reportedly suffering a psychotic break.

The anti-violence Abraham Initiatives group said that the double murder Friday brought to 232 the number of Arab Israelis who have been violently killed so far in 2023. In the same period last year, there were 115 such victims.

The killings are part of a violent crime wave that has engulfed the Arab community in recent years, but which has risen this year to unprecedented heights.

Last week, a teen was shot dead in Baqa al-Gharbiya, a few days after a man in his 50s was shot dead in the northern Israeli town of Ar’ara, in the same weekend in which a 29-year-old man was killed in Tel Sheva in the south and another was killed in Tayibe in central Israel.

Many Arab Israeli community leaders put the blame on the police, who they say 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.