Woman shot dead near Rahat; police suspect family member

Gigi El-Hazil, 27, found fatally wounded on outskirts of southern Bedouin town, in eighth homicide within a week, 173th in Arab community this year

By Charlie Summers

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4 September 2025, 3:19 pm

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The scene where a woman was found shot dead outside the Bedouin town of Rahat, September 4, 2025. (Magen David Adom)

A woman was found dead near the Bedouin city of Rahat, paramedics and police said Thursday. The woman, identified as Gigi El-Hazil, 27, was fatally shot, with police suspecting the culprit was someone from her own family.

Her death was the eighth homicide in the Arab Israeli community over the past week and brought the community’s toll since the start of the year to 173, according to a watchdog.

Aside from gunshot wounds, there were signs Hazil had suffered a beating, according to Arabic-language outlets. Medics pronounced her dead at the scene, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.

According to Hebrew media reports, two men who were in contact with the woman had previously been killed in other homicides.

The Michal Sela Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating domestic violence, has said that 25 women have been killed this year by family members. Their tally did not include the latest killing.

The Abraham Initiatives organization, which tracks Arab murder victims, said that including El-Hazil, 18 Arab women have been killed by violent crime since the start of the year. Of the 173 homicides in the Arab community, 147 were shootings. The homicide rate is about 12 percent higher than it was during the same period last year, the group says.

On Wednesday, the organization called on National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to resign over the soaring murder rate plaguing Arab society.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir leads an Otzma Yehudit faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on July 21, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The organization accused the government, specifically Ben Gvir and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of having “failed miserably in dealing with crime in Arab society.”

“In any civilized country, the person in charge of dealing with such a failed phenomenon would immediately resign,” the organization said.

The annual number of Arab murder victims doubled in 2023, coinciding with the beginning of Ben Gvir’s term as national security minister. Local Arab politicians have often placed blame on police for failing to solve Arab sector murders, contributing to a lack of deterrence against violent crime.