Woman, 25, dies four days after she was gunned down

A woman, 25, died Monday of wounds she suffered days earlier when she was gunned down in the north of the country.

Alaa Jao died at Rambam Medical Center, where her mother is reportedly also being treated for serious injures she sustained in a previous recent shooting.

Jao was shot last Thursday at the Musheirifa Junction close to the northern Arab city of Umm Al-Fahm.

Police suspect she was targeted due to a feud between clans, Haaretz reported.

The newspaper cited unnamed police sources as saying Jao’s father was killed several months ago and that her mother, who was shot a week before her daughter, is still in the Rambam Medical Center in serious condition.

The Abraham Initiatives anti-violence advocacy group said Jao’s death brings to 175 the number of Arabs killed in Israel since the start of the year.

During the same period in 2022, there were 79 homicides in the Arab community. Of those killed this year, 11 are women.

The killings are part of a violent crime wave that has engulfed the Arab community in recent years. Many community leaders blame the police, who they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence. They also point to decades of neglect and discrimination by government offices as the root cause of the problem.

Authorities have blamed burgeoning organized crime and the proliferation of weaponry, while some have pointed to a failure by communities to cooperate with law enforcement to root out criminal

Earlier this month, the Arab community went on strike as municipal leaders called for the establishment of an emergency committee to fight the relentless crime wave.

The violence has increasingly spilled into municipal politics in recent weeks, with threats and attacks directed against mayors, candidates, other municipal officials, and their families. A mayor candidate in Abu Snan, in northern Israel, was among four people killed in an attack late last month