Dozens arrested in early morning police raid of top crime families in Israel, West Bank

Hundreds of police officers raided dozens of locations in northern Israel and the West Bank on Monday morning, arresting multiple suspects from well-known criminal organizations amid a spiralling wave of violent crime that has claimed the lives of more than 230 Arabs in the past year.

Among those arrested in the early-morning raid were dozens of suspects believed to be members of the Abu Latif and Hariri crime families who are alleged to have run protection rackets involving extortion, shootings, and murder, police said.

All in all, 23 people were arrested across northern Israel and the West Bank.

The raid was the result of a year-long operation by the Israel Police’s Northern District and the State Attorney’s Office. Over the course of the operation, an undercover agent forged relations with senior members of the Abu Latif and Hariri crime families, two of the biggest criminal organizations in Israel.

The operation was centered around suspicions that the crime organizations had been trying to take over state-issued tenders through extortion and threats of violence against public officials and business owners.

The crime groups targeted tenders in dozens of locales, including the central Israeli cities of Rishon Lezion and Netanya, as well as in Nesher, Yarka, and Jadeidi-Makr.

Monday’s raid followed a similar operation in February, when police arrested 36 members of the Abu Latif ring on suspicion of using violence and intimidation to dominate state-issued tenders worth hundreds of millions of shekels.

In April, police announced that state prosecutors planned to indict 12 of the 36 suspects.

Police chief Danny Levy said Monday’s raid was another step in the police’s plan to tackle crime in Arab communities.

“The whole point of these organizations is to cause harm in the normative world,” Levy said. “You can’t contend with a strong police force. Any organization, wherever it is, will be defeated.”

Law enforcement would pursue the crime rings and bring them to justice, he said, “so that the country’s residents can get up in the morning, go to work, and return to their families without fear.”

Northern District commander Meir Eliyahu likewise vowed that the police were “determined to bring security to the residents of the northern district.”

“We will settle accounts with them, however long it takes and however difficult it may be,” he said.

The suspects will be brought before the Nazareth District Court later on Monday, where police will request to extend their detention.

Arab society has been caught in an unrelenting, deadly crime wave that has claimed the lives of 234 people since the start of 2025.