Man shot and killed in Galilee in latest homicide to hit Arab community
Khaled Odeh, 60, reportedly gunned down in his home in Reineh; son said to be suspect in another deadly shooting tied to organized crime; 2026 toll for Arab community climbs to 58
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A man was shot and killed Thursday morning in Reineh, an Arab town just north of Nazareth in the Galilee, as a rash of violent crime continued to plague the Arab community in Israel.
Paramedics found the victim, Khaled Odeh, 60, unconscious and in critical condition. He was pronounced dead in the hospital.
Police launched an investigation into the lethal shooting. No arrests were immediately reported.
Odeh’s son is a suspect in the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Azmi Gharib, who was gunned down in Nazareth in January, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
Channel 13 cited eyewitnesses as saying that gunmen broke into Odeh’s home and shot him as he lay in his bed.
The car apparently used by the gunmen was later found in flames, the network said.
עוד בוקר בממלכה של בן גביר.
לאיש בתמונה קוראים ח׳אלד עודה, עורך דין בן 60 שנורה הבוקר למוות בריינה. ח׳אלד הוא הנרצח ה-58 בפחות מחודשיים שעברו מתחילת השנה. pic.twitter.com/t8rmopwiQm
— עומדים ביחד نقف معًا Standing Together???? (@omdimbeyachad) February 26, 2026
According to the Abraham Initiatives, a coexistence watchdog that tracks violence in the Arab community and which identified Odeh in a statement, there have been 58 deaths from violence in the Arab community since the beginning of the year.
At its current pace, the homicide rate in Arab society this year is set to far exceed that of 2025, which itself set a record with 252 violent killings.
By comparison, during the first two months of 2025, there were 45 homicides in the Arab community, meaning there has been a 30 percent increase this year, the Abraham Initiatives said.
On Tuesday, a young man was shot dead in Rameh, an Arab town in northern Israel, in another killing related to organized crime.
The victim, around 25 years old, was found by paramedics on the ground, unconscious and with no signs of life.
A day earlier, Wael Khalili, 21, was shot outside a bakery in Shibli-Umm al-Ghanem, an Arab town in the lower Galilee.
The spiraling homicide rate, which is largely fueled by mafia-style organized crime, has recently been the focus of escalating protests.
Community leaders accuse the government of instituting policies that have allowed violent organized crime to proliferate in Arab towns and say police have largely failed to combat the problem, placing particular blame on National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right politician responsible for law enforcement.
Accusing Ben Gvir of not doing enough to curb the rampant, deadly crime, the Abraham Initiatives said that “anyone who is silent in the face of the criminal, racist policies of Minister Ben Gvir, and does not call for his immediate firing, is a full partner to the abandonment of Arab society.”
“The reality of two states — a criminal state and a state of law alongside each other — must end,” it urged.
Police have denied neglecting the Arab community and accused criminals of hampering law enforcement efforts by intimidating residents into not reporting crimes.
President Isaac Herzog hosted an iftar dinner at his residence on Monday, where he declared that Israel is “in a state of emergency.”
“It is simply impossible to accept the current reality, with the violence and crime in the Arab society,” he told Muslim community leaders, clergymen, educators, academics, IDF officers and security personnel.
Herzog called the violence “a security threat of the first order,” and urged the country to use “all the tools at its disposal” to combat the trend.
The Times of Israel Community.