Four more dead as gun crime wave continues in Israel

Four people were killed and 11 injured in shootings from Sunday to the end of Yom Kippur, as a wave of Arab sector violent crime has continued to unfold.

An 18-year-old was killed in a shooting in Rahat on Sunday morning. The victim was taken to Soroka Medical Center but was soon pronounced dead. The police conducted a raid on the home of a 29-year-old suspect. The shooting was motivated by a criminal conflict between two factions of the same family, police suspect.

Another suspected gang shooting in Rahat saw three wounded on Monday night. The victims, in their 20s and 30s, were evacuated to the Soroka in critical condition. Police said that they were investigating the incident.

Police are also looking for the perpetrators of a shooting in Haifa that killed a man in his 50s. The Rambam Health Care Campus said on Monday night that it received the victim, and also treated another man in his 60s who was shot in Daliyat al-Karmel.

Police arrested two Tayibe residents for shooting and killing a third man on Yom Kippur, who was murdered in his car near a gas station. Central District commander Avi Biton held a situation assessment on the shooting, as well as another incident in which an indiscriminate shooting injured three people outside their homes in Lod.

Police are looking into the shooting of a 43-year-old Kabul man on Monday night. He was pronounced dead at the Galilee Medical Center, according to police the suspected victim of a conflict between families.

Continuing violence

Violence continued into late Monday night, with three people wounded in a criminal shooting in Jerusalem's Abu Tor neighborhood. Magen David Adom reported on Monday night that it had evacuated a 21-year-old Bir al-Maksur man to Rambam in serious and unstable condition due to a penetrating injury.

Over 179 people have been killed in the Arab sector since the beginning of 2023, according to the Abraham Initiatives. The vast majority of the victims were shot to death. Though the year is not over, it has already eclipsed the death toll of 2022's 106 murders.

Police have continued to operate against illegal weapons fueling the Arab sector crime wave, on Sunday arresting a Tayibe resident for the possession of a Carlo submachine pistol.