Man shot and killed in Yarka

Police say a man was shot and killed in the northern village Yarka.

The man, in his 40s, was not immediately publicly named.

The Ynet news site says the man was killed as he opened up his restaurant.

Two hundred and forty-four Arabs were killed in Israel in violent criminal circumstances last year, over twice as many as in 2022.

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. More than half of Arab Israelis live below the poverty line, and their cities and towns often have crumbling infrastructure and poor public services. The minister in charge of police, Itamar Ben Gvir, has a long history of incendiary comments and stances against Israeli Arabs, and the community’s leaders have argued that his policies have only intensified the epidemic of violence over the last year.

For their part, authorities have blamed burgeoning organized crime and the proliferation of weaponry, while some have pointed to a failure by communities to cooperate with law enforcement to root out criminals.