Man shot dead, 7 injured in gunfight in southern Bedouin city of Rahat

A man was shot dead and seven others were injured by gunfire on Thursday in the southern Bedouin city of Rahat.

Wasam Kalil Abu Ajmi, 26, was named on the Ynet news site as the latest victim of the deadly violence in the Arab community that has claimed dozens of lives since the beginning of the year.

The Magen David Ambulance service said that among those injured, a man in his 30s was in serious condition.

A man in his 60s, a woman in her 40s and another man in his 20s suffered mild injuries, while others suffered light wounds from the gunfire, according to MDA.

Israel Police said that a preliminary investigation suggested the incident was the result of a conflict between two families.

The incident came as authorities struggle to stop a wave of violent crime in Israel’s Arab community that included four homicides in the space of 48 hours on a single weekend earlier this month.

View of the Bedouin city of Rahat in southern Israel, on April 8, 2019. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Last week, a separate shooting in Rahat left a 23-year-old man dead, after suffering multiple bullet wounds.

According to the Abraham Initiatives, a non-government group campaigning against violence in the Arab community, since the beginning of 2022 over 50 Arabs and Palestinians have been killed in violence or crime-related circumstances in Israel, mostly in shooting incidents.