Ramle man shot dead in latest murder thought linked to Jaroushi family feud

A man in his late 20s was shot dead Sunday morning in the central city of Ramle in what police were treating as a suspected murder.

Officials said the Ramle resident was found dead near a mosque in Jawarish, a deprived and mostly Arab neighborhood of the city.

He was identified as 28-year-old Ziad Mughrabi, according to Arabic-language media reports.

According to reports, he was a nephew of a senior member of the Jaroushi family, which has been riven by a suspected criminal feud that has left several people dead over the past year, including a couple and their teenage daughter killed in a drive-by shooting.

Officers in Ramle launched a manhunt for suspects and evidence was gathered at the scene of the shooting, according to a police statement.

Police added that a murder investigation has been opened.

Last month, 36-year-old Suhaila Jaroushi, a member of the family, was shot dead in front of her children in the central city, also in Jawarish.

In December, a woman was killed by a car bomb in an attack also in the city’s Jawarish neighborhood. A second woman and her baby who were passing by at the time of the explosion were injured. It was unknown if this was also connected to the Jaroushi family in some way.

The Abraham Initiates, a nonprofit that tracks violence in the Arab-Israeli community, said the man killed on Sunday was the eighth Arab to be killed in a homicide since the start of the year, continuing a trend that saw a record 126 killings in 2021.

Arab communities have seen a surge in violence in recent years, driven mainly by organized crime.

Arab Israelis blame the police, who they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence, which includes family feuds, mafia turf wars, and violence against women. The community has also suffered from decades of neglect.

Budget plans passed late last year call for billions of shekels over the next five years to be funneled toward addressing violence in Arab society and developing the community’s economy.