Two men found shot dead in Nahariya; no terror motive suspected

Separately, cops reportedly assess fatal Rahat hit-and-run as accident amid brawl

Illustrative: A Magen David Adom ambulance is seen in Jerusalem, March 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Illustrative: A Magen David Adom ambulance is seen in Jerusalem, March 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Two people were found dead in the northern city of Nahariya on Sunday, in what police were investigating as a double homicide, possibly linked to a conflict between families. No suspicion of a terrorist motive was reported.

Meanwhile, in Rahat in the south, a brawl between family members apparently led one participant to accidentally run over and kill one person and seriously wound another, in what police were treating as a potential negligent homicide.

In Nahariya, a Magen David Adom paramedic reported that two men, both around age 30, were found with stab wounds. Paramedics pronounced the men dead at the scene.

According to the Maariv newspaper, the victims were found and lived in the home of the Rubai family, on the city’s Weizmann Street. The family, based in Acre, is known to be in several conflicts with other families, the most bloody being with the Tabrani family, the report said.

In Rahat, police opened an investigation after a vehicle on Saturday hit two people, both men in their 30s, and fled the scene.

The person suspected of being the driver of the car was arrested. According to Ynet, the suspect was involved in a violent confrontation at the time of the incident, and is believed to have accidentally struck the victims while leaving the scene.

A view of the city of Rahat, in southern Israel, October 30, 2023 (Gianluca Pacchiani / Times of Israel)

Police requested on Sunday that the suspect be kept in custody on suspicion of negligent homicide.

One of the men hit, Assad al-Malaki, was taken to Soroka Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The other man hit is still hospitalized in serious condition.

A relative of al-Malaki, quoted by Ynet, said of the victim, “He was a good, normal guy. The heart breaks. This was an unnecessary fight that didn’t have to start.”

The news site also quoted a resident at the scene who lamented, “It’s a terrible shame we lost another victim to another incident of violence. In every brawl, there will ultimately be a murder or serious wounds, and after that we’ll suffer a wave of revenge attacks.”

Assad al-Malachi, who was struck and killed by a car in Rahat on January 11, 2024, in an image from social media shared by the Hebrew press. (Social media, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Another resident of Rahat, quoted in Maariv and identified only by his first name Wahid, connected the failure to prevent such crimes to a lack of care for Arab citizens, asserting, “If this had happened in a Jewish city, the response would have been different.”

The Abraham Initiatives said in a statement Sunday, “2025, too, has started with violence. The police’s inability and unwillingness to enforce the law in Arab cities is a continuing failure of the government. This is the third year in a row that this phenomenon has not received a response from the leadership.”

The group singled out for condemnation National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police, saying the far-right minister, who took office in late 2022, “has completely failed to take care of crime.”

And it noted that 230 people, almost all of whom were Israeli citizens and 20 of whom were women, were killed as a result of crime in the Arab sector in 2024.

Additionally, a 51-year-old Arab man was fatally shot in his car last week in the central city of Tira, marking this year’s first killing in an Arab town.

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