Youth crime spiking in Tel Aviv area, with arrests almost doubling since 2022, police data shows

Youth delinquency has reached new heights in and around Tel Aviv, according to police data revealing that the number of cases opened against minors last year in the district hit a peak of several years, with arrests nearly doubling since 2022.

Police opened 2,084 cases against minors in 2025, according to law enforcement data obtained by the Ynet news outlet. This is compared to 1,935 cases in 2024, 1,851 in 2023 and 2,043 in 2022.

Most of the cases involve public order disturbances such as fighting in a public place and unlawful assembly, property damage and violent offenses.

Tel Aviv District police arrested 568 minors last year, as compared to 301 in 2022, meaning the rate at which minors are being detained on criminal suspicions has almost doubled. Indictments against minors have also risen sharply, from 442 in 2022 to 571 in 2025.

The vast majority of these cases concern minors who are Israeli citizens. According to the data, 80 percent of the cases were opened against Israelis, as opposed to West Bank Palestinians and foreign nationals.

The data is published in the wake of two lethal stabbings suspected to have been carried out by minors, though both of these incidents occurred outside the Tel Aviv District, in Petah Tikva and Beersheba.