Man shot dead in northern town, becoming 124th Arab victim this year
Man in his 20s gunned down in Nahaf, two days after last killing in violence-plagued minority
A young man was shot dead in the Galilee town of Nahaf on Tuesday, becoming the Arab community’s 124th fatality from violent criminal activity this year.
The man, in his 20s, was shot in an open area of Nahaf and declared dead after being brought to a hospital in Nahariya, authorities said. His identity was not immediately made public.
Police said they were investigating, and the motive or background behind the killing was not immediately known.
The Abraham Initiatives, which tracks stats on violent crime in the Arab community, said the killing was the 124th this year, adding to an already grisly tally that has far outpaced previous years. It said 103 of the deaths have been gun victims, and 60 of all those killed were under 30 years old.
The killing came two days after a resident of the Arab town of Jaljulia was lightly injured in a suspected car bombing near the nearbly town of Kafr Qasim.
On Sunday, a woman was killed by a car bomb in Ramle and a passerby and her baby were injured by the explosion. It was the fourth death this month believed related to organized crime and came amid government efforts to crack down on violence in Arab Israeli communities.
Arab communities have seen a surge in violence in recent years, driven mainly, but not exclusively, by organized crime.