Teenage boy, man killed in Rahat double homicide; police arrest two suspects

A 17-year-old boy and a 30-year-old man were shot and killed, with a relative suspected of opening fire in a romantic dispute in Rahat on Thursday night, in a shooting that injured three others, police and medics said.

The shooter opened fire on his victims outside a shopping center near a major thoroughfare in the southern Bedouin city. The two deceased were named as Abdallah and Ashraf Abu Madigham.

Paramedics arrived at the scene to find two of the victims in critical condition and began attempting to resuscitate them while rushing them to Soroka Medical Center in neighboring Beersheba.

The pair succumbed to their wounds and were declared dead by hospital staff. The three other victims sustained moderate injuries.

Soon after the incident, police arrested a suspect in the shooting, a man in his 30s, and seized a handgun from the family’s home they believe was used to carry out the ambush. They later arrested an additional suspect, Ynet reported.

Investigators arrived to find the scene of the shooting compromised, after someone used water to wash away some of the evidence, according to the outlet. The police’s investigation and hunt for additional suspects were ongoing as of Thursday night.

Law enforcement suspected that the alleged assailant was spurred on by a romantic dispute between cousins, though the exact details of the conflict were unclear.

Southern District police commander Haim Boublil told Ynet that police were collecting the remaining evidence from the scene, which they managed to secure after it was initially disturbed.

Since the start of the year, 230 Arab citizens have been killed in violent incidents, putting 2025 on track to be the deadliest year for Arab Israeli society to date. The police’s arrest of two suspects in the shooting was a rare occurrence, with the vast majority of homicide cases going unsolved in the Arab sector.

The Abraham Initiatives group, which tracks murders in Arab society, has put the percentage of homicides solved by police at just 10% so far this year.

Speaking to Ynet, Rahat Mayor Talal al-Kernawi said rampant arms trafficking in southern Israel was to blame for the massive uptick in violence as of late.

“Weapons are a cancer in this city. In times of anger or loss of temper, weapons are used and murderers are committed. We must do everything to remove weapons from the city so the people will have security. Illegal weapons must leave the city,” he said.