Man shot dead in northern Israel, in killing likely tied to organized crime
52-year-old victim of drive-by shooting in Kiryat Bialik known to authorities; police also uncover underground tunnel used by mafia in Nazareth
A 52-year-old man was killed by a drive-by shooter on a motorcycle in Kiryat Bialik in northern Israel on Wednesday night, police said.
The police are familiar with the victim, who was identified as Eitan Isakov, and suspect that the shooting is related to organized crime.
The shooting took place while Isakov was sitting in a car outside a family business.
In 2021, Iskov’s brother and nephew, Shumi and Pe’er Isakov, were murdered in a case that is still unsolved.
According to Walla, the Isakov family gained power and influence in the late 1990s and early 2000s through their gambling business, but later distanced themselves from the crime scene following pressure from law enforcement.
There was an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Shumi Isakov and a third Isakov brother, Shalom, in 2017, and another unsuccessful attempt against Shalom in 2011. Shalom Isakov died of an illness in 2021.
In related news, Ynet reported that police recently uncovered an underground tunnel in Nazareth used by the organization of crime boss Samir Bakri.
The tunnel is dozens of meters in length. Police suspect it was used as a hideaway for members of Bakri’s organization and possibly for smuggling weapons.
Dozens have been killed as a result of the feud between the Bakri organization and the Hariri organization.
“One day, we were tipped off about an uninhabited house that people were entering and leaving,” Nati Simcha, an intelligence and reconnaissance officer at the Nazareth police station, told Ynet. “We arrived at the house, saw the tunnel and thought it was a small pit. We monitored the place for 30 hours and discovered that it was a tunnel of dozens of meters, divided into several sections.”
Simcha says digging likely began two years ago, when the Bakri-Hariri feud began.
A deadly crime surge in Arab communities continues to shatter records set over the past few years.
Since the beginning of the year, 159 members of the Arab community have been killed by violence, much of it attributed by police to warring crime organizations. The figure is over twice as high as for the same period in 2022.
The Times of Israel Community.