Three people were killed and six others were injured, including four police officers, in a string of violent incidents across Israel overnight Thursday and early Friday.
In the southern town of Tel Sheva, a resident of the nearby Bedouin community of Lakiya, Tawfiq Abu Ayash, was shot and fatally wounded just after 1:30 a.m. Police said they arrested three suspects in connection with what they believe was a blood feud — a form of retaliatory violence between rival families or clans common in some Bedouin communities.
Magen David Adom paramedics met a private vehicle carrying the wounded man at the Tel Sheva Junction on Route 60. “He was lying in the back seat, unconscious, without a pulse or breathing, and suffering from severe penetrating injuries,” said senior medic Yisrael Aharoni. “We provided life-saving treatment and evacuated him to Soroka Medical Center while performing prolonged resuscitation efforts, but his injuries were too severe.” Abu Ayash was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Police from the Negev District’s Ayarot Station and officers from the Israel National Guard’s southern unit raided compounds linked to feuding families and detained three suspects.
About 90 minutes earlier, four police officers were lightly injured in a high-speed chase near the Bedouin city of Rahat. According to police, officers from Rahat Station and special southern district forces were operating in the area as part of efforts to prevent clan-related violence when they encountered a suspicious vehicle that ignored their calls to stop.
During the pursuit, the vehicle rammed into a police cruiser, endangering the officers. Police opened fire, and after a brief chase, the driver — a man in his 20s from a nearby Bedouin encampment — was arrested. The injured officers were taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva.
In a separate incident, also in Rahat and reported to Magen David Adom at 1:19 a.m., a 24-year-old man was moderately wounded by gunfire. He was treated at the scene and taken to Soroka for further care.
Hours later, in northern Israel, two men in their 40s were shot dead in a vehicle parked in an open area near the Arab village of Ibtin, outside Haifa. Police launched a search for suspects and said the motive appeared to be criminal.
Emergency medic Shadi Majdov of Magen David Adom said both men were found unconscious and without vital signs. “They were close to each other, with penetrating injuries to their bodies,” Majdov said. “We performed medical checks, but their injuries were too severe, and we had to pronounce them dead at the scene.”
The killings bring the number of homicide victims in Israel’s Arab community to 210 since the start of the year, including 18 in October alone, according to police data.
Authorities said investigations into all incidents were ongoing.