Five cars were set on fire overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday in the Negev town of Lehavim. The vehicles were torched at a gas station at the entrance to the community, and after an investigation police said the arson was a retaliatory attack linked to an ongoing police operation in the nearby Bedouin community of Tarabin.
Fire and Rescue Services said a report of the blaze was received at 1:48 a.m. Firefighting crews from the Beersheba district arrived to find five vehicles fully engulfed in flames. Firefighters worked quickly to extinguish the fire, isolate the area and disconnect energy sources to prevent the blaze from spreading to additional vehicles or nearby property. No injuries were reported.
Police said they examined all possible motives, including an internal family dispute and a nationalist incident, before determining the attack was a “price tag” response by Bedouins to the operation in Tarabin. A senior police official said, “The rules have changed. They will not intimidate us. We will escalate our measures.” Another police source said the Shin Bet security agency must be brought into the investigation.
Residents have previously reported gunfire directed at the same gas station near Lehavim, but no suspects have been arrested to date.
The police operation in Tarabin, located just a few kilometers from Lehavim, began on Monday. Police said they are enforcing a “full encirclement” of the community following what they described as retaliatory actions by criminals from Tarabin over the weekend and after a governance patrol conducted by the national security minister and Police Commissioner Danny Levy.
Hundreds of officers took part in the operation. Police patrols entered Tarabin and threw stun grenades into homes. Officers also fired toward a mosque without provocation, according to local residents. Concrete barriers were placed at the entrances to the community.
Abed Tarabin, a member of the Al-Qasum Regional Council, said two days ago that residents were pursuing legal channels to have the barriers removed. “We are trying to reach everyone we know to get the barriers taken down,” he said. “There are many police vehicles. Tear gas was used at night, people were choking. What is being done here is madness.”
During the operation, which is being led by the Border Police’s National Guard, two minors were arrested on suspicion of stone throwing and later released by a court. A relative of one of the boys claimed police beat the children and caused property damage.