2 shot dead in northern town, 1 in East Jerusalem as unrelenting crime wave continues
19-year-old man, 20-year-old woman killed in Jisr az Zarqa; man gunned down while trying to break up brawl in Shuafat; Arab community violence death toll reaches 129
A 19-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman were shot to death in the Arab town of Jisr az Zarqa on Israel’s coast on Friday night.
First responders rushed the pair, cousins named Muhammad and Rasha Amash, to a hospital in Hadera, where they were declared dead.
Police opened an investigation into the incident and were working to locate suspects who fled the scene after the shooting.
Also Friday night, in a separate incident a man was reportedly shot to death while trying to break up a brawl in East Jerusalem.
The man in his 40s was identified in Hebrew media reports as Ziad Fahmi Taha from the East Jerusalem refugee camp of Shuafat.
He was shot, apparently by mistake, while trying to separate combatants in a street fight, the Ynet news site reported.
The violence came amid an unrelenting violent crime wave in Arab communities.
On Thursday, two men were shot dead in Kafr Bara in northern Israel and another was stabbed to death in a separate incident in Ashdod.
The Abraham Initiatives anti-violence monitor said the killings brought the number of Arab community members who have died in violent crime since the start of the year to 129. The total for 2022 was 116.
Of this year’s victims, 116 were killed by gunfire, the watchdog said.
Many community leaders blame the police, who they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence.
They also point to decades of neglect and discrimination by government offices as a cause of the problem.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir last week urged the cancellation of a plan for economic development in the Arab community.
“It is unthinkable that the right-wing government will act to continue the implementation of the coalition agreements that the previous government granted to the Muslim Brotherhood and their representatives, instead of changing and correcting the same decision, which grants unprecedented funding and powers through anti-Zionist elements,” wrote Ben Gvir, whose ministry oversees policing, in an official missive, demanding the cabinet revoke the plan.
The program was approved by the previous government that included the Islamist Ra’am party alongside right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties that united in opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
