Murder cases double, percentage of solved cases decreases under Ben-Gvir

Criminal homicides rose sharply in 2023 and 2024, and the percentage of cases solved has dropped, according to recently published police data.

The police provided the data following a joint freedom of information request by a nonprofit called Hatzlacha (“Success”) and Army Radio legal reporter Eli Zilberberg.

The data shows that in 2022, 52 out of 142 cases were solved. This amounts to approximately 37% of cases solved, excluding cases where the suspect died or those passed on to the State’s Attorney’s Office.

In 2023, 76 out of 274 cases were solved, a rate of approximately 28%. In 2024 so far, 49 out of 196 cases were solved, a rate of approximately 25%, the data showed.

The list of cases does not reflect the number of civilians murdered, since some cases involved multiple murders. The data showed that 148 people were killed in homicides in 2022; in 2023 the number more than doubled, reaching 300; and in 2024 so far, 213 people have been killed.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is responsible for internal security, took office in late December 2022, and the numbers reflect that on his watch there was not only a rise in homicides but also a drop in the police’s success rates in solving them.

Ben-Gvir’s office did not respond to a query on the matter from Zilberberg.

“Severe criminal cases, with an emphasis on homicides, are at the top of the police’s priorities. Lacking the use of technological methods and tools, there is a difficulty in preventing and exposing severe crime,” the Israel Police said. 

The police’s response referred to the fact that they have been barred from using some spyware technologies since allegations arose in January 2022 that they had used spyware, chiefly among them NSO’s Pegasus, to infiltrate suspects’ cell phones without receiving legal permission.

A team investigating the matter found that while the infiltrations themselves were legal, the police also unintentionally extracted extra information from the phones that they were not privy to. Still, the issue is awaiting legislative regulation.

Kan News reported on Wednesday that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara had refused to greenlight a bill proposal by Ben-Gvir and Justice Minister Yariv Levin to enable the use of spyware, since the proposal also prohibited using spyware to investigate government corruption. According to the report, Ben-Gvir will instead attempt to pass private legislation via an MK from one of their parties to that effect.

In parallel, a committee appointed by the government to investigate the police’s use of spyware was temporarily shut down by court order after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara found that it had broken the law by ignoring a prohibition to look into ongoing investigations and court cases.