Man shot dead in his bed in northern Bedouin town
Medics declare Ali Hujirat, 41, dead at the scene in Bir al-Maksur in 55th homicide in Arab community this year
A man was shot dead overnight Sunday in the northern Bedouin town of Bir al-Maksur amid an unrelenting wave of lethal violence in the Arab community.
An assailant entered the home of Ali Hujirat, 41, and shot him with a silenced pistol as he lay sleeping in bed, according to Hebrew media reports.
His four children were in the home at the time and raised the alarm, the Ynet news site reported.
Magen David Adom medics who arrived found Hujirat unconscious and with gunshot wounds, the emergency service said in a statement. Medics tried to resuscitate him but were forced to declare him dead at the scene.
The Israel Police said the shooting was not terror-related, and began combing the area for suspects.
The incident came amid a prolonged epidemic of violent crime in Israel’s Arab community. On Sunday, Nour al-Din Abdelqader, 27, was shot dead in the northern Arab town of Yafa an-Naseriyye, close to Nazareth.
According to the Abrahams Initiative anti-violence watchdog, Hujiryat’s death brought to 55 the number of homicides in the Arab community since the start of the year. Of those, 48 involved the use of firearms.
Last week, Israel Police chief Daniel Levy said at a summit for industrialists held in the northern town of Nazareth that he was committed to combating violent crime in the Arab community, and that he had been so since the day he took on the role six months ago.
However, on Sunday, the Kan public broadcaster reported that since he entered office there have been 135 homicides in the Arab community, the highest ever for a six-month period under a single police chief.
The past few years have seen a massive spike in violent crime in Arab society, which claimed over 200 lives annually in both 2023 and 2024.
Many community leaders blame law enforcement for the spiraling homicide rate, accusing police of neglect as the majority of cases go unsolved.
In an annual report, the Abraham Initiatives estimated that last year law enforcement solved just under 15 percent of Arab murder cases.
The group has documented a surge in murder rates in the community since 2023, the first year in office of former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who resigned earlier this year over the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal.
In January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet approved the temporary appointment of Tourism Minister Haim Katz to the three ministerial positions left vacant when Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party quit the government, including the National Security Ministry, which deals with policing.
In 2024, the Abraham Initiatives recorded 230 homicides in the Arab community, and in 2023, the watchdog counted 244 — more than double the previous year. The group attributed the rise to Ben Gvir’s scrapping of his predecessor’s plan, drafted in coordination with local Arab leaders, to fight organized crime in the community.
Police confirmed in January that the homicide rate in the Arab community more than doubled in 2023. Data for 2024 is yet to be released.
