Three men gunned down in Shfaram, taking toll in Arab community to 11 in a week

Three Arab Israeli men were shot dead early Wednesday morning, spiking the community’s toll to 11 homicides in a week, in an unrelentingly bloody start to the year.

The three were gunned down together in the northern Arab Israeli town of Shfaram. Police said the killings were tied to a crime feud.

They were named in media reports as Yasser Hujiyrat, 53, of Shfaram, and Fathi Hujiyrat, 55, and Haled Gadir, 62, both from the Bedouin village of Bir al-Maksur in the Galilee.

The Magen David Adom emergency service said medics found the three men with gunshot wounds and declared them dead at the scene.

Police suspect the shooting was tied to an ongoing war between the Hawalad and Sawad local crime families, the Walla outlet reported. The feud, which has gone on for over three years, has reportedly claimed the lives of at least 30 people, some of whom were not directly involved in the criminal underworld but were targeted only because of their association with figures from the two families.

Hours earlier, Mahmoud Jasser Abu Arar, a 20-year-old medical student, was shot dead in the Bedouin village of Arara Banegev in the southern region of the country.

Arar, who was studying in Georgia, had returned home for a vacation on Tuesday, Hebrew media reported.

Paramedics found Abu Arar in critical condition and took him to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where he succumbed to his wounds.

Police said the shooting appeared linked to a blood feud between families and they they arrested 10 suspects in the shooting, all residents of Arara Banegev.

The deaths came a day after President Isaac Herzog called the rampant violent crime rocking Arab society a “national challenge” and blamed the issue on inequality.

He said the matter should be “occupying the thoughts” of Israel’s politicians daily as a top priority.

On Wednesday Herzog’s office said he would convene an emergency meeting with Bedouin and Jewish regional council heads from southern Israel “in light of the emergency situation.”

The homicides are continuing a wave of killings in the Arab community that saw 2025 end with a record 252 deaths.

On Monday, after three deadly shootings within hours, the the anti-violence watchdog the Abraham Initiatives accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to stem the killings.

“Crime in the Arab community is reaching negative records,” the organization said in a statement. “Israeli citizens are being murdered on the streets. Under this government, the blood of citizens is cheap.”

Community leaders accuse the government of instituting policies that have allowed violent organized crime to proliferate in Arab towns and say police have largely failed to combat the problem, placing particular blame on the far-right politician responsible for law enforcement, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Ben Gvir has not made any public remarks about the deaths over the past week.

Police have denied neglecting the Arab community and rebuffed criticism of their handling of crime in Arab locales, acknowledging the scourge but insisting that officers are doing all they can to combat the violence.

Police say intimidation of residents by criminals has hampered their efforts to combat violence in Arab areas. Indeed, underworld syndicates have become so insidious that many fear going to the police will make them a target of the criminal organizations that have come to dominate their neighborhoods.