Man shot dead in Holon criminal violence amid missile fire from Iran
Morad Shwiki, a bus driver from East Jerusalem, gunned down in his car; police say shooting related to organized crime, raising toll in Arab community to four this week
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A man was shot dead overnight Tuesday in Holon, near Tel Aviv, in an incident police said was linked to organized crime, the fourth such killing since the beginning of the week.
The victim was identified in Hebrew media as Morad Shwiki, 36, a bus driver from East Jerusalem.
Shwiki, a father of five, was shot as he sat in his car on Halohamim Street. Medics declared him dead at the scene.
Police said he was ambushed, with the shooters following his car before opening fire.
Shwiki had just finished a shift and had no criminal background, according to reports.
He was apparently killed around the time an Iranian missile barrage targeted the central region of the country and Jerusalem. Tel Aviv Police District commander Haim Sargaroff mentioned the shooting as he visited Ramat Gan, where an elderly couple was killed by a cluster munition that fell in the city.
Sargaroff said that police were at various locations where cluster munitions had fallen, and that there was also apparently a homicide to investigate.
וזה עוד רצח שקורה הלילה, תוך כדי האזעקות – בחולון:
אלמונים רעולי פנים יורים למוות במוראד שוויקי, נהג אוטובוס של דן שסיים משמרת. אדם ללא עבר פלילי בכלל, נורמטיבי לחלוטין תושב י-ם.
משפחתו מעלה חשד כי מדובר בטרור יהודי, במשטרה עומדים על כך כי הרקע פלילי.
71 נרצחים מתחילת השנה. pic.twitter.com/K3LUeKzMoe— Josh Breiner (@JoshBreiner) March 18, 2026
Haaretz reported that, though police assert the shooting was related to organized crime, Shwiki’s family believes it was an act of Jewish terrorism.
On Wednesday, the Democratic Workers’ Union’s transportation department said that many bus drivers in the central Dan region were not showing up for work Wednesday morning in protest of the violence that they face on the job.
“The shocking murder case expresses the public transportation workers’ fear for their safety,” the organization said in a statement reported by the News08 outlet. Drivers were skipping work “to protest the police’s helplessness in handling the increasing cases of violence against public transportation workers in general and in Arab society in particular.”
On Monday, three members of the Arab community were killed in separate shootings in central Israel’s Ramle, in the northern village of Musheirifa, and in Tira, also in the central region.
The number of Arab homicide victims in 2026 now stands at 71 — about 28 more than in the same period last year, which was the bloodiest on record in the Arab community, with 252 homicide victims, according to figures from the Abraham Initiatives.
The anti-violence watchdog has accused National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was appointed toward the end of 2022, of letting crime in the Arab community spiral out of control.
In 2023, Ben Gvir’s first full year in office, homicides in the Arab community soared to 244, over double the previous year.
Critics charge that Ben Gvir has done little to deal with the stranglehold organized crime has put on Arab towns, instead prioritizing fighting terrorism or lawlessness that spills into Jewish areas.
Community members say gangland activity has driven an influx of gun violence, worsening existing blood feuds between families.
The violence has cast a pall across the community, with innocent passersby regularly caught in the middle of deadly shootings. In many Arab towns, shop owners now close by sundown and parents say they are afraid to let their children leave the house.
Charlie Summers contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.