Woman shot dead, three injured in Ramle; police arrest husband

A woman was shot dead and three other women were wounded in a shooting in the central city of Ramle on Monday, police said, adding that they had arrested the woman’s husband.

The victim, a woman in her 30s identified as Ranin al-Abeed, was shot alongside another woman in her home. The Magen David Adom rescue service said medics transported both women to a nearby hospital in serious condition while still alive. However, she later succumbed to her wounds, police said.

After shooting the two women indoors, the man apparently went out to the street and opened fire on two other women, Channel 12 news reported.

One of them had been several hundred meters away from the house when the shooter opened fire on her and was moderately wounded. Another woman who was lightly injured by bullet shrapnel arrived at the police station.

Police said they initially suspected the unusual shooting rampage in the mixed Jewish-Arab city was a nationalist terror attack.

Officers who arrived at the scene arrested the suspect and seized a weapon from him.

On of the residents who witnessed the scene said he had been sleeping when he heard gunshots. “I went outside and saw a truck driver shooting at a young man, he thought he was a terrorist. The driver shot and the young man shot back at him and broke the glass of the truck [window]. The trucker fled out of fear he’d hurt him,” he said.

The woman injured on the street had been “covered in blood and cried until police and Magen David Adom came,” the neighbor continued.

Speaking to the Kan public broadcaster, another neighbor, Gabriel Abu Zaki, charged that the only reason Police Chief Danny Levy and other high-ranking officers came to the scene is because some of the wounded were Jewish.

The Arab community has been been racked with violence and killings in recent years, with community members blaming police for frequently failing to act.

“The family of the murderer is not a crime family but a normal, law-abiding family. There was a fight between them. No sane person shoots on the street at passersby,” Abu Zaki said.

The ongoing probe into the shooting was assigned to the Central District investigations and intelligence unit.

Hours later, in the neighboring city of Lod, a 16-year-old boy was shot and seriously injured near the city’s train station.

According to Magen David Adom, the victim was found conscious with several bullet wounds on a street near the train station in the central city. Paramedics rushed him to Shamir Medical Center for further treatment.

Police initially released a statement saying they suspected the shooting was a “revenge killing” in an ongoing conflict but later revised their assessment and said it was most likely an accident.

Assistant Commissioner Kobi Mor, who commands the Shfela precinct, said that the teen and his friends had probably been playing with a gun while they were supposed to be in school.

“On the face of it, and I’m saying this cautiously, it is most likely gun play. This was several kids who were at school, came here, and the incident occurred here,” he said. He added that the boy is part of a family that is known “in the field of crime.”