2 men shot and killed within hours amid unrelenting deadly crime wave

Two men were killed in apparently separate incidents overnight, police say, amid an unrelenting deadly crime wave.

A man in his 20s was shot and killed in a central square in Tira.

“The murder was carried out in front of dozens of residents, including children. We saw a gunman chasing the victim and shooting at him,” an eyewitness tells the Ynet news site. “He tried to enter businesses and was unsuccessful, until he was murdered in the middle of the road. They almost murdered us too.”

Police are said to believe the killing was the result of a conflict between criminals. According to the Haaretz daily, the man was the ninth person killed violently in Tira since the start of the year.

Hours later a man in his 30s was shot and killed in Kafr Qara.

Police are said to believe that killing was also part of a criminal feud.

The crime wave has worsened considerably over the past two years since the installation of the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir as national security minister. Much of the deadly violence has happened in the Arab Israeli community.

Ben Gvir has remained silent throughout the past few days despite the high number of murders.