Three Arab men and a woman were shot and killed in separate criminally attacks across Israel on Thursday, September 4. In the first incident, police reports of gunfire directed at Ala Sharuf, a man in his 50s from the village of Usfiya. Medical teams who arrived at the scene pronounced him dead. Shortly afterward, medics and paramedics found two men in their 20s near Nachsholim on the Coastal Highway. Both victims had suffered penetrating wounds and were found without a pulse or respiration. They were pronounced dead at the scene. The victims are Muhammad Jourban and Emad Amash, residents of Jisr al-Zarqa.
The bodies of Muhammad Jourban and Emad Amash, residents of Jisr al-Zarqa found near Nachsholim (Photo: Magen David Adom)
Earlier in the day, a woman in her 20s was found dead in an open area near the city of Rahat in the Negev. A preliminary police inquiry revealed that the victim’s sister had contacted authorities earlier to warn that someone intended to kill her and her sister. According to the Abraham Initiatives, 176 people have been murdered in the Arab community since the start of the year. This represents a 14 percent increase over the same period last year, when 154 deaths were recorded.
“The situation in the Arab-Palestinian community in Israel is extremely difficult and we are pained by the blood being spilt in our streets. We will not lose hope because we must continue fighting to change this bleak reality. We recently cautioned against the severity of the situation and the lack of security in Arab towns, but unfortunately, the bloodbath persists. The Arab residents have had enough of criminals enjoying full autonomy in their towns,” a Hadash activist in Nazareth said.
During a debate held last Wednesday at the Knesset, MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash) said, “Our situation is like this because we are not full citizens of the state, but rather an ‘Arab population’ that feels there is someone in the government who is happy about the crime spree there. There is total insecurity that is tearing apart society, and there are entire families that have moved abroad. I refuse to accept that the police cannot handle this.”
On Wednesday, the National Security Committee, chaired by MK Tzvika Fogel (Otzma Yehudit), continued its discussions on murders and illegal weapons in the Arab society. According to data presented to the committee by the Knesset Research and Information Center, in recent years there has been a steady increase in the number of people hospitalized due to gun violence, with the majority of those hospitalized and deceased in hospitals due to gun violence being Arabs: approximately 92% overall.
MK Fogel said, “This is not a political debate. But when we look at the numbers, we see that we are not achieving the desired results.” However, MK Yoav Segalovitz (Yesh Atid) said, “This is political because we have an unqualified, convicted minister [racist Itamar Ben Gvir] who is not interested in Arab crime. And there is a prime minister who is not interested. Therefore, the government must be replaced.”
