Murders, shootings, explosives, grenade attacks and deliberate vehicle rammings — In recent days, hardly a day has passed without a serious or unusual criminal incident somewhere in Israel, from Holon to Rahat and Netanya to the Galilee.
These are some of the main incidents reported over the past several days.
Monday: 15-year-old wounded by explosive device
- An explosive device detonated Monday afternoon in the yard of an apartment building in Holon’s Jesse Cohen neighborhood, south of Tel Aviv. A person known to police lives in the building and investigators believe he was the intended target. Police were trying to locate him to obtain his account of the incident. A 15-year-old boy was moderately wounded in the blast.
- More than 10 people were arrested in Rahat, a predominantly Bedouin city in southern Israel, during police raids targeting two families involved in a feud that has included gunfire.
Sunday: 16-year-old girl wounded by grenade
- A 16-year-old girl was moderately wounded when a grenade was thrown at a home in Ma’alot-Tarshiha, a city in northern Israel. Police said the incident was criminal in nature.
- Police arrested two boys, ages 15 and 13, after they allegedly filmed themselves making an obscene gesture at police officers and kicking a police vehicle in Tel Aviv, then uploaded the videos to TikTok. The two were taken for questioning at the Holon police station and later released under restrictive conditions.
Saturday: Driver hits police vehicle, injures officer
- In Netanya on Saturday night, police officers spotted a vehicle they considered suspicious and ordered the driver to stop for inspection. Police said the driver ignored their instructions, continued driving and collided with a police vehicle. An officer was moderately wounded in the crash and the driver sustained minor injuries. The driver was arrested.
Driver collides with a police vehicle in Netanya
(Photo: Israel Police)
Friday: Killings in Kabul and Haifa
- Mohammed Samer Yassin, a resident of Tamra, was shot and killed in the Arab town of Kabul in the Western Galilee. His cousin, Jawad Yassin, was killed in February last year. Police said the shooting was criminal in nature. Yassin was the 177th person killed in Israel’s Arab community since the beginning of the year.
- Yonat Maswada, a woman in her 30s, was found in critical condition on Haifa’s Ha’atzmaut Street and taken to Rambam Health Care Campus, where she was pronounced dead. Her partner, Ali Maswada, was arrested. A court on Monday extended his detention until Thursday. His attorney argued that she had inflicted the injury that caused her death herself.
The scene of the shooting in Yafa an-Naseriyye
(Photo: Israel Police)
Thursday: Man opens fire on building, then is shot
- A man in his 30s opened fire with a long gun at a building in Yafa an-Naseriyye, an Arab town near Nazareth, and was shot by police following a pursuit. He was taken in critical condition to the English Hospital in Nazareth, where he was pronounced dead.
- Police arrested a 28-year-old resident of Modi’in who is suspected of planning to distribute cannabis across Jerusalem. The suspect is the son of a well-known Israeli singer.
Wednesday: Fragmentation grenade explodes in Kfar Shmaryahu
- An IDF fragmentation grenade exploded overnight in Kfar Shmaryahu, an affluent community north of Tel Aviv. Neighbors reported hearing a powerful explosion. Police bomb disposal experts arrived at the scene and collected evidence. A preliminary investigation indicated that the incident was criminal in nature.
An IDF fragmantation grenade
(Photo: Israel Police)
Police pushed back on the suggestion that the recent cluster of violent incidents reflected a broader surge in crime, saying its data showed declines in several major categories compared with the same period last year.
According to police, Israel has recorded 22 fewer killings since the start of the year than during the corresponding period last year. Vehicle thefts have fallen about 27%, break-ins at businesses about 12% and burglaries of homes and vehicles about 8%, police said, adding that robberies have also declined.
Police said officers responded immediately to the incidents cited, making arrests, conducting searches and collecting evidence. In Rahat, five suspects were arrested over the weekend and police seized an M-16 rifle, two handguns, magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Ten other people were arrested or detained in a separate operation connected to the violence there.
In Haifa, police noted that a suspect had been arrested and remained in custody. In Yafa an-Naseriyye, police said officers confronted and shot an armed man after seeing him fire a long gun at a residential building.
Investigations into the other incidents remain underway, police said.
“A cluster of incidents occurring within a few days should not be taken as evidence of a nationwide trend,” police said, adding that crime trends should be assessed over longer periods and on the basis of broader data.
Police said they would continue operations targeting violent offenders, organized criminal activity and illegal weapons in an effort to prevent further violence and bring suspects to justice.