Man, 50, shot dead at entrance to his Jisr az-Zarqa home

A 50-year-old man was shot dead Wednesday morning at the entrance to his home in Jisr az-Zarqa, the 146th homicide this year in the Arab community.

The man, named by the Ynet news site as Deeb Jarban, was taken to Hadera’s Hillel Jaffe hospital, where medics pronounced him dead, according to police.

An investigation was launched, with cops arriving at the scene and conducting searches for suspects.

Police said that an initial probe raised the suspicion that the incident was a criminal gangland hit.

The previous violent killing in the Arab community took place Tuesday in the town of Sha’ab.

According to the Abraham Initiatives, an anti-violence watchdog, Jarban was the 146th member of Israel’s Arab community to have been killed in a homicide since the start of 2023, more than double the toll at this time last year.

The killings are part of a violent crime wave that has engulfed the Arab community in recent years. Many community leaders blame the crime wave on the police, who they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence. They also point to decades of neglect and discrimination by government offices as the root cause of the problem.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose ministry oversees the police, has taken little action on the soaring crime wave, despite heavily campaigning on the issue.

Members of the previous unity coalition — which included an Arab party for the first time in Israeli history — argue that measures they took to address root causes of the endemic led to a rare, albeit marginal, drop in killings.