Police arrest 6 over gangland shootout in Afula that some mistook for terror assault
One resident of northern city says they sat in bomb shelter for an hour, fearing what was happening outside as gunmen roamed streets firing at each other, causing no injuries
Israel Police on Saturday arrested six people suspected of involvement in a gang-related shootout the night before in Afula.
The gunfight left no one injured but thoroughly rattled residents of the northern city, some of whom told Hebrew outlets that they initially assumed the shooting was a large-scale terror attack.
“We sat in a bomb shelter for almost an hour until we realized [the shooting] was criminal,” an anonymous Afula resident told Ynet.
In reality, the shooting took place as part of an ongoing gang dispute, with some of those arrested hailing from the nearby Arab Israeli village of Sulam, according to Hebrew media.
Police received reports of the incident at around 7 p.m. and managed to arrest one suspect soon after opening their investigation that evening. The other five were detained earlier today, a spokesman says. A car thought to have been used in the shootout was also seized by law enforcement.
Based on their findings, police say they will request an extension of the suspects’ detentions before the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court this evening.
Video posted to social media showed men roaming the streets with guns and firing at each other.
משילות: לאור יום חמושים פתחו בקרב יריות בשכונה מאוכלסת ילדים בלב עפולה. המשטרה טוענת כי עצרה 4 חשודים במעורבות באירוע. pic.twitter.com/PISGSOnbOw
— daniel amram – דניאל עמרם (@danielamram3) April 5, 2025
At one point, two men, at least one of whom was armed with a pistol, assaulted a man, pushing and kicking him to the ground, though their objectives were not clear and they did not shoot him.
The scenes were reminiscent of October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led thousands of attackers to invade southern Israel. The terrorists swiftly overwhelmed security forces and were able to penetrate multiple communities, including the border town of Sderot, where footage later showed them prowling the streets looking for victims to murder.
The attack killed 1,200 people in the region and triggered the still ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
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.
The Times of Israel Community.