Man gunned down in Haifa in apparent clan feud

A 25-year-old man was fatally shot in the northern city of Haifa on Sunday morning, the latest apparent homicide in the Arab community amid government efforts to crack down on violent crime.

The victim — identified as Ahmed Omaria from the nearby town of Ibtin — was shot near the Check Post Interchange.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said its medics pronounced Omaria dead at the scene.

Police opened an investigation into the killing and were probing if a car set ablaze near the scene of the shooting was used by the suspects.

The assailants apparently ambushed the victim while he was driving his tow truck. “They shot and ran away, the tow truck stopped, and then they fired at it nonstop,” eyewitnesses told Channel 12 news.

According to Hebrew-language media reports, the shooting was apparently related to a feud between rival clans.

No arrests were immediately made.

According to the Abraham Initiative nonprofit, the shooting in Haifa was the 120th homicide in the Arab community this year, an all-time record. Of those killed, 101 were Arab citizens of Israel and 19 were Palestinians, either from East Jerusalem or with Israeli residency.

Arab communities have seen a surge in violence in recent years, driven mainly, but not exclusively, by organized crime.

Arab Israelis blame 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 community has also suffered from decades of neglect.

In August, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that violence and crime in Arab Israeli communities was a “national calamity.” He has vowed to crack down on the phenomenon.