Relative of top crime boss shot, seriously wounded in suspected hit

A relative of a top man in the criminal world was seriously injured Wednesday evening by gunfire in Kiryat Yam in a suspected hit job, police said.

The 25-year-old man was shot while standing on the fourth-floor balcony of a building in the northern city, a suburb of Haifa.

Medics arrived at the scene and evacuated him to Haifa’s Rambam Health Center, where he was conscious and in a stable but serious condition.

Officials said it was not yet clear how the gunman had managed to shoot the man, and police opened an investigation.

The shooting came amid a worrying rise in organized crime activity across the country.

Police said Monday morning that they had thwarted a criminal assassination attempt when sappers defused a large explosive device that was attached to a vehicle in the southern coastal city of Ashdod.

In a statement, police said they believed a “huge disaster” had been prevented because the size of the bomb meant that in addition to the target, innocent bystanders could also have been killed or wounded.