Woman believed murdered by relative filmed a video begging for help months earlier

Sherihan Mishleb, a 35-year-old Arab Israeli woman who was murdered this week, had filmed herself pleading for help months before her death.

“I’m recording this video so that you will know that to this day, I am in danger,” she divulged in Arabic-language footage she sent to friends. The video was first obtained by the Ynet news outlet, which published it Tuesday night, a day after she was killed.

“I am from a religious extremist family. I reported this to the police as well as to a social worker. I am in greater danger every day that passes,” she continued, begging those viewing the footage to help her escape the situation.

Mishleb’s body was found Monday night by police and paramedics at her home in the northern town of Abu Snan at around midnight. Medics at the scene said she had been shot several times and pronounced her dead at the scene.

She was a divorced mother of three, but her children were out of the house at the time of her killing. She was initially found by her brother, who alerted cops.

The next morning police detained eight of her relatives, including her ex-husband, for questioning. Four were freed the next day, while the other four remain in custody.

סרטון שצילמה שריהאן משלב. היא נרצחה הלילה. כולם ידעו והיא נרצחה הלילה. אנחנו מזועזעות. סליחה שהתרעת ואף אחד לא עזר. סליחה שאכזבנו אותך. סליחה.

המשרד לביטחון לאומי, ממשלת ישראל – זה עליכם.

הסרטון מתוך כתבתו של חסן שעלאן ב- @ynet pic.twitter.com/AqB69fCjXG

— Israel Women's Network || שדולת הנשים בישראל (@ISRWN) July 29, 2025

One of Mishleb’s friends told Ynet that she had stayed at a women’s shelter for some time, but that her family eventually convinced her to return home. She added that the deceased was rumored to have converted to Islam, causing a potential rift between her and the rest of her family. It is unclear whether Mishleb is from a Christian or Druze background.

Abu Snan local council head Saif Mishleb told Arabic-language Nas Radio Tuesday that he did not suspect Mishleb’s male relatives of involvement in the murder, calling her father a “religious man and respectable person” and adding that the same applies to her brothers.

Mishleb was the third woman in Arab society to be found dead within a week. Tuesday night a week prior, 48-year-old Aisha Kabua was found shot dead on the side of Route 80 near the Negev desert town of Ararat an-Naqab. Police arrested four of her family members on suspicion of involvement in her murder.

Police arrested five people Saturday night on suspicion of murdering a woman in her apartment in the northern village of Musheirifa, near the city of Umm al-Fahm. But several people familiar with the deceased said there was no foul play.

Mohammad Taysir Karut, a relative of the woman who serves as deputy head of the Ma’ale Iron regional council, alleged to Ynet that the police had lied in their statement. “A murder did not occur here, at all. She suffered from a severe mental illness and was treated in a mental institution, and only about two months ago she returned home, in order to rest a bit,” he claimed.

Separately, on Wednesday night, a young man in his 20s named Mohammad Shamali was shot dead near a gas station in Ramle.

Paramedics found him unconscious and took him to Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in neighboring Be’er Yaakov, but he was soon pronounced dead by medical staff.

The Abraham Initiatives coexistence group, which tracks Arab murder victims, said that 150 Arab citizens, including 14 women, have been killed since the start of 2025 amid an unrelenting crime wave plaguing Arab locales throughout Israel.

In the same period last year, 132 victims, including five women, had been killed in violent circumstances.