Tel Aviv police chief warns of ‘national emergency’ amid Arab killings

Tel Aviv District police commander Haim Sargaroff warns that Israel is in a “state of national emergency” after six Arab citizens were violently killed over the course of two days.

“We are in a state of national emergency, we need to work together here,” he says in an interview with Kan radio, referring broadly to other government agencies. “I’m not saying that the responsibility isn’t that of the police, but if we don’t work together, we won’t be able to win.”

The senior officer says that yesterday’s fatal car bombing in Jaffa, which killed 38-year-old Iyad Raab and injured his six-year-old son, is linked to an ongoing drug dispute.

Shortly after Raab was pronounced dead, another car bombing shook Holon just south of Tel Aviv around noon, killing Jaffa resident Mustafa Abu Lisan.

Sargaroff says police have been aware of the conflict that led to the two vehicle bombings for several months now. He says it began due to a shooting that injured a man suspected of involvement in drug deals. After a period of relative calm, the Jaffa-based conflict flared up again with the killing of 17-year-old Imad Jabari last week.

Police have not reported making arrests in any of the three homicides linked to the dispute.

Despite the criminal roots of the conflict, Sargaroff notes that many of those targeted have little to no relation with underworld dealings, without going into detail on the victims.

“The people involved in the conflict are more wary, take more precautions, are more sensitive, so [the assassins] go to people further away, who are from the same family, the broader circle,” he says.