Israeli gunned down in Cape Town a year after his cousin met similar death

Shaufik Nassar, an Israeli citizen in his mid-30s, was shot in Cape Town, South Africa on Wednesday, just a few days after he arrived in the city.

A “prominent businessman from Palestine” was shot and killed by a motorcycle-riding gunman early Wednesday morning, South African news site News24 reported.

The death of Nassar, from the Arab town of Tira in central Israel, comes almost a year after his cousin Abdel Fattah Nassar was also shot and killed while visiting Cape Town. That incident was at first reported by the family as an automobile-related fatality, but the Foreign Ministry then said he had died in a gun battle.

According to reports, some members of the extended Nassar family have decamped to South Africa to evade violence associated with their involvement in criminal activity. Abdel Fattah Nasser had been arrested several times in Israel on suspicion of violent crimes, including shootings and possession of firearms.

South Africa has in recent years become known for lawlessness and street violence and Cape Town at one point was considered the eighth most violent city in the world.

However, a recent report by the South African government indicated that the murder rate in the Western Cape province, where two-thirds of the population live in Cape Town, had fallen by 15% in the last quarter of 2022.

Cape Town: motive unclear but the possibility of an attempted hit or robbery is being investigated. pic.twitter.com/yJwF9aAC5p

— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) October 4, 2023