Taibe woman shot dead on porch, apparently by stray bullet

A 55-year-old Israeli Arab woman was shot and killed in the central town of Taibe on Saturday, apparently by a stray bullet.

Nadia Brasani was hit in the chest while sitting on her porch with her relatives, reports said.

She was taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Kfar Saba, where she was pronounced dead.

The source of the gunfire was unclear and no suspects have been apprehended.

Brasani and her family “had no enemies,” a neighbor was quoted by the Ynet news website as saying.

“There are still many people using firearms and we’ve reached a situation in which we are liable to be hurt by gunfire for no reason in our own homes,” said the neighbor, who was not named. “It’s time to put an end to the phenomenon. These weapons hurt children, women and men and leads us only to tragedies.”

Flooded with illegal weapons, Israeli Arab cities are hotbeds of crime, in a trend that Arab lawmakers say the Israel Police is reluctant to combat. In 2015, 59 percent of murders in Israel took place in the Arab community, even though Arabs represent only 20% of the population.