2 women shot dead in separate attacks, as murder wave shows no sign of abating
Earlier in the day, man found dead in abandoned home in Umm el-Fahm; death toll in Arab community rises to 196 so far in 2023
Two women were shot and killed in the north on Wednesday within two hours of each other, medics said, raising the tally of those killed in the Arab Israeli community in 2023 to 196, of whom 14 were women.
In the first incident, paramedics called to the Arab town of Arara found 26-year-old Yasmin Jabareen in critical condition in a car in the parking lot of an event hall at the entrance to the town.
Despite resuscitation efforts, Magen David Adom medics declared her dead while transporting her by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
Police suspect that one or two gunmen accosted Jabareen as she was on her way to a wedding and then shot her through the car windshield seven times. The suspects fled the scene despite the parking lot being just 400 meters from a police station.
According to Ynet, Jabareen was a nurse and had two children. A year and a half ago, she moved back in with her parents, apparently because of a conflict within her family, and reportedly filed police complaints four months ago after receiving threats.
Two hours after Jabareen’s murder, a 40-year-old woman was critically injured when she was shot in the Arab town of Shfaram, also in northern Israel. Rambam Hospital in Haifa announced her death shortly after. Media reports named her as Salaam Hajaj.
She was apparently hit by a stray bullet when gunmen targeted someone else, Army Radio reported.
Earlier Sunday, a man was found dead in an abandoned home in the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm.
Since the start of the year, there have been 196 violent crime fatalities in Arab communities, compared to 82 deaths during the same period last year, according to the Abraham Initiatives organization, which tracks the figures.
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 criminals.
