Police internal affairs questions border cop who shot, killed Arab man after car chase

The Department of Internal Police Investigations questioned a Border Police officer who shot and killed an Arab man after a car chase on Thursday in Umm al-Fahm.

Following the interrogation, the officer was released to house arrest for five days and ordered to stay away from police stations for two weeks. He must also stay out of the northern Arab city for 30 days.

Police said Thursday morning that officers pursued a “suspicious vehicle” on Route 65 after the driver failed to comply with their orders to stop.

The chase ended in Umm al-Fahm. According to police, after the cars came to a halt and an officer approached on foot, the driver pounced on the cop, who opened fire.

The driver, identified as 38-year-old Alaa Mahameed, was later pronounced dead. The Umm al-Fahm municipality condemned the deadly incident and called for an independent commission to investigate it.

Haaretz reported that Mahameed was unarmed when he was killed, according to the investigation by DIPI, a Justice Ministry body tasked with investigating the police.

The incident was caught on a security camera. Sources described as being close to the officer were quoted by Haaretz as saying the incident was also recorded on his body camera.

♦️ תיעוד הירי על הצעיר, עלאא מחמיד, מאום אל-פחם, על ידי אנשי משמר הגבול. המשטרה טענה כי הירי התרחש לאחר שנרדף בכביש 65 ותקף את אחד משוטריה במהלך ניסיון מעצר.

Advertisement

משפחת המנוח: "הריגה ללא משפט"…

לעומת זאת, משפחה ועדי ראייה מקומיים אישרו כי הירי היה ללא כל הצדקה. pic.twitter.com/hsBbhtvnJn

— Asslan Khalil (@KhalilAsslan) September 17, 2026

Yousef Jabareen, head of the Arab-majority Joint List party, said during a condolence visit to the family that the security camera footage “contradicts the police account,” and that the family has heard from eyewitnesses that “Alaa did not pose a threat to the officers and he could have been stopped without being shot.”

Blaming the killing on anti-Arab incitement by the government, Jabareen said the officer should be “suspended immediately” and called for an “independent, transparent and genuine probe.”

The officer’s attorney, Moti Azulay, told Haaretz “the entire incident lasted a few seconds” and that the officer “sensed a genuine, immediate threat to his life.”

The officer, who “regrets the difficult way in which the incident ended,” acted out of self-defense and had “no other practical option,” the lawyer said.

Ex-cop ordered to pay for theft of foreign worker’s cash

Also Thursday, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court ordered an ex-police officer to pay NIS 354,000 ($117,000) in damages, as well as interest and legal fees, after he was found to have stolen cash belonging to foreign workers.

The former officer, Nazia Sa’ab, was a beat cop in Tel Aviv in 2018 when he learned that Hobi Prashad Bhusal, a local foreign worker, was running an informal bank for his community, primarily for people from India and Nepal, according to Hebrew media reports. Some foreign workers are unable to open Israeli bank accounts due to their legal status.

Sa’ab then raided Bhusal’s apartment, discovering 319,000 NIS ($105,000) and 18,000 dollars in cash, some of which he took. The officer was in uniform and at one point drew his gun, according to Hebrew media reports, but he did not have a warrant.

Sa’ab was previously found guilty of abusing his power in the incident, in a criminal case, and was sentenced to community service.

Bhusal has since been deported from Israel and has lost his livelihood amid the legal proceedings, according to his lawyers. They said the Thursday decision was “a first and crucial step in doing justice, but the struggle is far from over,” asserting that further responsibility lies with the state itself, not just Sa’ab as an individual.