Suspected shooter killed by police in criminal gunfight in coastal town

A man was shot dead by police on Friday night in an exchange of gunfire with officers in the coastal town of Jisr az-Zarqa.

Police said armed men had opened fire at a residential building in the town. Police responded to the scene and several suspects shot at officers, who felt their lives were in danger and returned fire.

The fatality was around 20 years old and died of his injuries shortly after the gunfight. A second man, also in his 20s, was moderately wounded in the incident. Hebrew media reports said the two were brothers.

The incident was apparently a criminal attack and there were no suspicions of terrorism.

The two men may have been hit by gunfire from other assailants at the scene, and not by officers, police said.

Officers were conducting an investigation and recovered a “Carlo” type submachine gun at the scene, a type of homemade firearm sometimes used by criminals and terrorists.

Hours earlier, a 12-year-old boy was severely wounded and a 25-year-old moderately injured in a separate shooting in the same town. They were rushed to the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera for treatment.

Early investigations indicated a masked man had entered a family’s yard, shot the pair and fled the scene.

Hebrew media said the second attack was likely in revenge for the first.

Police sent reinforcement officers to the area after the shootings.

A resident of the Arab-majority town told the Walla news site that community members were incensed at police over the killings. The town has its own, small police station.

“They didn’t threaten police. They’re not terrorists,” the woman said. “Maybe they were on their way to get back at whoever shot their family. That’s not a reason to shoot them in the chest with an M16.”

Jisr az-Zarqa, on the Mediterranean coastline south of Haifa, is one of Israel’s poorest and most densely populated communities.

It is largely separated from the wealthy neighboring communities of Caesarea and Ma’agan Michael and hemmed in by a highway and the sea, preventing its growing population from expanding outward and isolating residents.

The town has been wracked by violence in recent months.

Earlier this month, a 14-year-old boy was hit by a stray bullet outside a pizzeria in the town and died of his wounds days later.

The shooting was also suspected to have been a revenge attempt for the killing of another teenager. Police arrested a 16-year-old suspected of that attack.

Mahmoud Nasser, a community organizer in the struggle against violence in Arab communities, called on the government to take further action after Friday’s incidents.

“Children in Arab society can’t even go into the backyard of their own homes. After a child was killed on his way to buy pizza, no one did anything and the situation continued as it was,” Nasser said. “The Israeli government needs to implement a comprehensive plan for treating the issue of crime in Arab society. Arab lives matter. Our blood is not in vain”

Arab communities have seen a surge in violence in recent years amid a rise in organized crime and the proliferation of illegal weapons.

According to the Abraham Initiatives, which tracks violence in the Arab community, at least 92 Arabs have been killed in homicides in Israel since the beginning of the year, mostly in shootings.