Two dead, 16 hurt in car-ramming at brawl in Bedouin town

Two people died and sixteen were injured Saturday night in a car-ramming attack at a Bedouin community in southern Israel that was apparently sparked by a dispute between two rival clans.

One critically injured man, identified as a 50-year-old resident of the village, was pronounced dead by doctors at the hospital and another man, in his thirties, died later during the night, Channel 10 reported on Sunday morning.

Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the injured to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. One was said to be in critical condition.

According to eyewitnesses, the brawl started when a car began speeding around one of the neighborhoods in the Bedouin village of Kuseife, east of Beersheba, as occupants of the vehicle fired shots in the air. After local residents gathered in the street to see what was going on, another vehicle arrived at the scene and plowed into the crowd.

An initial police investigation found that the motive for the clash was apparently a dispute between a local family and another from an unregistered Bedouin community in the Negev.

No arrests have yet been made.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.