Man shot and killed in Haifa months after daughter gunned down

A 64-year-old man was shot and killed in the northern city of Haifa on Thursday morning, police and medics said, in a killing apparently linked to an ongoing feud between two crime families that claimed his daughter’s life two months ago.

The victim was identified as Haifa resident Salah Abut Hait. His killing was the second deadly shooting Thursday morning, with a Palestinian man also shot and killed in the Arab Israeli town of Kafr Qasim.

The Abraham Initiatives anti-violence monitor said the killing brought to 126 the number of Arab community members who have died in violent crime since the start of the year. The total for 2022 was 116.

Unknown gunmen opened fire on Abu Hait on Haifa’s Haneviim Street. Magen David Adom medics took him in critical condition to Rambam Medical Center, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Police said that officers were at the scene and searching for the gunmen.

The Ynet news site quoted police sources as saying the killing was suspected to be part of a feud between Bakri and Hariri crime families that has already claimed the lives of over 20 people.

Abu Hait’s 24-year-old daughter Hanan was shot and killed while she sat in a car in Haifa in May, in a murder also suspected to be part of the feud. After that, her family had reportedly left the city and went to stay with relatives in Nazareth.

Last December Abu Hait’s cousin was killed in a Haifa restaurant. That shooting came two days after a father and his toddler son were shot dead, apparently also as part of the same feud.

The violence comes against a background of power struggles by Arab organized crime families, working together with Jewish counterparts, for control over Haifa and its surrounding areas, a police source told Hebrew media after the killing of the woman.

Thursday’s shooting was the second killing of the day.

Earlier, a 35-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank was shot as he walked in the streets of Kafr Qasim, police said.

The motive for that shooting was not immediately clear and police said they were investigating.

Arab communities have seen a massive increase in violence and killings in recent years.

Many community leaders blame 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 primary cause of the problem.

On Tuesday Marhan Awaisy, the son of Nazareth Deputy Mayor Muhammad Awaisy, was shot dead in the northern town of Reineh.