Baqa al-Gharbiya man slain in third deadly shooting to strike Arab community in days

A man was shot and killed in the northern town of Baqa al-Gharbiya Tuesday night, the eighth homicide in the Arab community in the last week and a half.

Nader Maqaldeh, 48, was pronounced dead after being rushed to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera.

Eyewitnesses told the Ynet news site that Maqaldeh was shot as he was leaving a local cafe. The killing was allegedly linked to an ongoing feud between two families in the city, Maariv reported.

Police said they opened an investigation into the shooting.

Since the start of the year, 40 Arabs have been killed in violent homicides in Israel.

The last several days have seen a marked increase in shootings, with Maqaldeh the 8th fatality since June 4 and the third in a matter of hours.

The car in which a man was shot dead in Shoham, June 14, 2022. (Israel Police)

Earlier in the day, a man around the age of 30 from the Arab town of Jaljulia was shot and killed near a building site in the central region town of Shoham.

On Monday night, Mahmoud Sna Allah, a 43-year-old man from the town of Deir al-Assad, was shot dead in his car in the northern town of Bi’na. One other man was lightly injured in the incident, Channel 12 reported.

Arab communities have seen a surge in violence in recent years. Many blame 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.