- By Yolande Knell
- BBC News, Jerusalem
3 hours ago
Image Credit: Magen David Adom/Portal
picture description,
The shooting appears to have been the deadliest incident of criminal violence in Israel in recent years
In Israel, five men have reportedly been shot dead in an attack linked to criminal gangs.
The mass shooting at a car wash in the Arab town of Yafa an-Naseriyye near Nazareth is considered the deadliest incident of its kind in years.
Israeli media suspect that it could be a feud between two families.
This follows a sharp rise in killings among Israeli Arabs and complaints that the country’s hard-line government is ignoring the issue.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was shocked and his government was determined to stop the chain of murders.
“I am determined to turn on the Shin Bet [security service] as an aid to the Israeli police against these criminals, against the criminal organizations, against these murders,” he added.
Police said officers were investigating the circumstances of the shooting and were looking for suspects.
Earlier in the day, a three-year-old girl and her male relative were seriously injured in another shooting in Kafr Kanna, another town near Nazareth. The police assume that it was a criminal dispute.
Israel’s Arab minority makes up about a fifth of the population, but has witnessed the vast majority of killings in the country in recent years.
According to the Abraham Initiatives, a group campaigning for equality between Israelis, Arabs and Jews, 97 people have been killed so far this year – almost triple the number for the same period last year.
Most of the victims are young men, but increasing numbers are caught up in a wave of violent crime linked to illegal guns, family feuds and organized gangs.
The leader of the opposition, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, said the spike in murders was unacceptable and called on Mr Netanyahu to personally take charge of government efforts to stop him.
Another prominent opposition politician, Benny Gantz – a former army chief and defense minister – called for the sacking of far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is in charge of policing.
Mr Gantz said Mr Ben-Gvir, who has been convicted of racism in the past and is known for his anti-Arab rhetoric, “cannot deal with such a complex event and it is doubtful he is interested in dealing with it”.
But Mr Ben-Gvir blamed decades of neglect and lack of governance for the crime surge, saying there was a “wild west” in every sense in the Arab sector.
He expressed support for the prime minister’s decision to involve the Shin Bet, but also urged him to push ahead with the establishment of a “national guard.”
In theory, Israeli Arabs — or Palestinian citizens of Israel, as many prefer to call them — have the same rights as Jewish citizens, but they regularly complain of state discrimination.
Bereaved families and Arab officials claim that police inaction is one of the main reasons for the endemic violence in their neighborhoods.
In recent years there have been mass protests by Arab communities.