Two men killed in car explosion in Arab town, as murders in Israel spike

Two men were killed in the Arab town of Jaljulia on Monday, bringing the total number of suspected murders in Israel over the past two days to seven.

The two were killed in a car explosion, in what was apparently a killing tied to organized crime. The explosion also injured a 10-year-old passerby, who was evacuated to the hospital in moderate condition.

The deaths of the two men raised the number of Arabs killed in violence in 2025 to 102, according to the Abraham Initiatives, a non-profit that tracks crime data in the Arab Israeli community.

The watchdog has recorded an unprecedented rise in violent crime in the Arab community in the first two years in office of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose portfolio includes the police.

Ben Gvir’s first year in office, 2023, saw murder rates in the Arab community soar to their highest ever, roughly double what they had been the previous year. The minister had gutted a program put in place by his predecessor, Omer Barlev, and by Arab municipal leaders to combat crime in the Arab community.

In a belated report earlier this year, Ben Gvir’s office confirmed that homicides in the Arab communities had more than doubled in 2023. His office has yet to release data for 2024.

The vast majority of Arab sector murder cases are unsolved by law enforcement, with many community leaders criticizing police for not doing enough to deter violent crime in Arab locales. Some officials claim a lack of cooperation with law enforcement in the community makes it harder to catch culprits.

Ben Gvir has remained silent throughout the past few days despite the high number of murders.

Earlier Monday, a woman was stabbed to death in Bat Yam, apparently by her partner, who jumped to his death from a building’s roof after a 9-hour standoff with police.

According to the Israel Women’s Network, 14 women have been murdered in Israel since the start of the year, 13 of them by a partner or relative.

Also Monday, police said a 30-year-old man was shot and killed in Netanya in what appeared to be a criminal dispute.

The deadly shooting in Netanya came hours after a 20-year-old man was shot and killed in Lod. Three suspects were arrested in connection with that killing. Police said the Lod shooting was also apparently part of a criminal dispute.

Sunday saw a man arrested on suspicion of murdering his mother in a West Bank settlement, while a woman was believed to have murdered her son before setting their home ablaze and committing suicide in Modiin.