Police conducting major anti-organized crime raid in Rahat and nearby towns

Police are conducting a sweeping raid today in Rahat and other Bedouin areas of southern Israel in an operation meant to combat organized crime in the region.

The operation, which involves hundreds of police officers and officials in civilian enforcement agencies, is meant to “sever the income sources of criminal actors, strengthen governance and increase public security in Rahat and its environs,” police say.

The operation comes months after a state comptroller report found that southern Israel has suffered from a massive uptick in extortion, specifically in the form of protection rackets in which criminals threaten businessowners with violence, blackmailing them into paying for gang-run security services.

The phenomenon, which has been burgeoning amid a chronic shortage of police officers in the south, has seen the cost of building projects skyrocket and dissuaded contractors from competing for tenders.

“We are working hard against criminal organizations so that we can have a quieter and safer country, and therefore we won’t pull punches when dealing with these criminal organizations,” says police chief Danny Levy to officers at the scene, in a quote carried by the Walla news site.

Tax Authority officials are seen going from business to business in Tarabin al-Sana as the streets remain mostly empty, save for children gathered near the mosque at the town entrance.

The Bedouin village was subject to a weeks-long, militarized police raid in December closely overseen by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. That operation led to clashes between locals and police, and the fatal shooting of one resident on his own doorstep.