Death toll in the Arab community this year to date: 26

Violent killings surge as police crackdown fails to stanch Arab community bloodletting

Arab leaders view crime-fighting tactics as ineffective or worse, accusing law enforcement of not coordinating raid on Umm al-Fahm with local leaders and turning town into an ‘army barrack’

Israeli Arabs protest against violence, organized crime and recent killings among their communities, in the Arab town of Majd al-Krum, northern Israel on October 3, 2019. (David Cohen/Flash90)
Israeli Arabs protest against violence, organized crime and recent killings among their communities, in the Arab town of Majd al-Krum, northern Israel on October 3, 2019. (David Cohen/Flash90)

Violent crime in Arab society claimed 21 lives in January, more than double that of the corresponding month last year, a figure which has alarmed law enforcement and community leaders alike.

Over the past two years, the homicide rate in Arab society has reached unprecedented levels, doubling from its previous peak in 2021. But 2025 stands to be much deadlier if January’s trends persist into the coming months.

As of February 3, the death toll in the Arab community had climbed to 26, including three people gunned down in the northern town of Abu Snan just after midnight Monday. The toll is exactly double the number of Arab homicide victims as of the same point last year and even higher than the toll recorded in January 2023, a year that saw the murder wave claim a record 244 victims.

Taking note of the surge, police launched a sweeping operation on January 28 in the major Arab Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm with the stated aim of strengthening public security and the fight against serious crime.

But Arab community leaders were dismayed by the police action, insisting it did nothing to deter killings within the community.

“What was done on Tuesday should not have been done,” said Umm al-Fahm mayor Samir Mahamed, who charged the cops with needlessly raiding the homes and businesses of law-abiding citizens.

Mahamed told The Times of Israel that police did not give city officials any forewarning about the operation.

Dr. Samir Sobhi Mahamed, Mayor of the Israeli Arab town Umm al-Fahm, in his office, on February 4, 2020. (Oded Balilty/AP Photo)

“I had no idea it was happening, they didn’t coordinate at all,” he said. “Suddenly I started getting calls from residents, so I called the station commander who told me that yes, there is an operation underway in the city.”

The Umm al-Fahm municipality put out a statement as the operation progressed, decrying it as “insulting and humiliating” and lamenting that police were “turning the city into an army barrack.”

Police, on the other hand, touted the day’s achievements after the operation concluded. Upwards of 1,000 officers were enlisted in the maneuver, which saw 31 suspects arrested for economic and workplace offenses, 33 unauthorized vehicles taken off the road and five kilograms (11 pounds) of drugs seized.

But any deterrence the police achieved was gone by Friday, when three of the city’s residents were murdered on the last of the month in a combined shooting and car-ramming assault.

Police officers group up during a day-long operation in Umm al-Fahm to crack down on violent crime on January 28, 2025. (Israel Police)

The incident involved Ahmad Jabarin, 25, who was shot at and injured while riding his motorcycle. As bystanders rushed to his aid, a car rammed into the crowd, killing Jabarin and Ribhi Ramadan Mahamed, 54, on the spot and injuring four others.

One of the wounded, Ezzeldin Musa Mahamed, succumbed to his wounds in the hospital on Sunday morning.

Later that day, police arrested three suspects in connection with the incident, but many feel that law enforcement is not doing enough to fight violent crime in Arab cities and towns.

“Why must this tragedy enter every home in Umm al-Fahm,” asked Abdel-Moneim Mahamed, mourning his brother Ezzeldin in comments carried by the Ynet news site. “We have to stop this violence. The responsibility lies with the police and the state. The civilians can’t do anything.”

Police at the scene of a suspected murder in Lod, February 12, 2023. (Police)

Veteran Knesset politician Ahmed Tibi, who heads the Ta’al party, noted that police were up against underworld organizations that had grown tremendous power thanks to years of police neglect.

“In practice, Arab society does not feel the presence of the police, they feel the presence of criminal organizations,” Tibi told The Times of Israel. “It’s as if these organizations are a state within a state — they set the pace, they murder time and time again, and the police can’t stop them.”

He blamed the spiraling violence on police’s limited success in solving murder cases in the Arab community. In an annual report, the Abraham Initiatives coexistence group estimated that last year, law enforcement solved just under 15% of murder cases in the Arab sector.

The scene of a triple murder in Umm al-Fahm on January 31, 2025. (Magen David Adom)

“There is no punishment, there is no deterrence, so whoever murdered will do it again,” said Tibi.

Yoni Arie, who directs the Abraham Initiatives’ Safe Communities project, called Tuesday’s operation a “cynical misuse” of the fight against crime. “They’re using this important struggle to do all sorts of things that they simply want to do, with no connection at all [to organized crime],” he said.

Arie noted that among the targets of last week’s raid in Umm al-Fahm were the offices of a program aimed at curbing violence in Arab society by mediating between feuding families, but which is linked to extremist cleric Sheikh Raed Salah, who has been jailed repeatedly for incitement to terror.

The “peace-spreading” body established a uniform set of guidelines for local reconciliation committees in resolving potentially deadly intracommunal disputes.

Sheikh Raed Salah (center left), leader of the radical northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, celebrates with supporters following his release from a jail in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, on December 13, 2021. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

However, the body was outlawed by Defense Minister Israel Katz, who noted its links to Salah, head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement.

Police alleged that the program acted as a cover for Salah to continue his Islamist political activities, but their move to shutter it was anathema to Arab Israeli leadership across the board.

Mahamed hailed the program, which he claimed had successfully resolved 1,600 intracommunal conflicts last year.

Ra’am party chairman MK Mansour Abbas, whose party is linked to the Islamic Movement’s more moderate southern branch, also criticized law enforcement’s move, warning it could harm efforts to curb violent crime.

At a Thursday meeting in Nazareth, members of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, a leading umbrella organization among Israel’s Arab minority, vowed to fight the ban through legal means.

The committee members planned to appeal to the Defense Ministry, then petition the High Court of Justice if that fails.

Most Popular
read more: