Man killed, 12-year-old in critical condition after Jaffa shooting
Incident comes amid rising tide of apparent gang-related violence; police investigate, but witness says officers only search for drugs, not weapons
A man was killed and a 12-year-old boy was critically injured in a shooting in the coastal city of Jaffa on Tuesday.
The man, said to have been around 20 years old, and the boy were taken to the Wolfson Hospital in Holon.
“So far, two wounded people were brought in, the older of whom has sadly died,” the hospital said in a statement. “Our staff is now fighting for the life of the child, who is currently in critical condition.”
Police have opened an investigation into the incident on Harav Rubinstein Street.
Naim Abu Saif described the aftermath of the incident to the Kan public broadcaster.
“I am like [the shot boy’s] grandmother. I grabbed his hand and felt a slight pulse,” she said. “Where are the police? Where are the Border Police? They are just looking for drugs here, not for the killers. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. The police do not take the weapons from the people, they are only looking for drugs,” Abu Saif said.
Drive-by shootings and car bombs set off as part of underworld gang wars have long wracked Israeli cities, including Jaffa.
Recent years have seen an increase in killings and gun crime in the Arab Israeli community. Arab leaders say police largely ignore the violence, which includes family feuds, mafia turf wars, and violence against women.
A number of demonstrations and large rallies have been held to protest what Arab Israelis say is a failure to adequately deal with the wave of criminal violence within the community.
Earlier this month a 4-year old Palestinian girl, Rafif Qara’een, a resident of the Issawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem, died of wounds sustained when she was struck by an apparently stray bullet fired by an unknown shooter on May 21, according to police. A relative said the family had sat down to eat the traditional iftar meal held each night during the month of Ramadan fasts, when a bullet suddenly hit her in the head.
In a seemingly unrelated incident the same evening, a 3-year-old boy and his father were lightly to moderately injured when a masked gunman opened fire at them in a shop in the Shuafat refugee camp.
Only 30 percent of the alleged murders in the Arab Israeli community in 2019 — 27 out of 88 — were ever solved, the Haaretz daily reported.
Thirty-six percent of Arab Israelis have a sense of personal insecurity in the community where they live due to violence, compared to 12.8% among Jewish Israelis, according to a 2019 report by the Abraham Fund.
Baladna, a nonprofit organization, reported that young Arab Israelis are the most likely to be killed within the community — more than half of those murdered are 18 to 34 years old.
The Times of Israel Community.