Six killed amid Israel’s inaction toward spike in Arab murders
Six Arab people, including a five-member family, have been killed in the occupied territories, as Israel turns a blind eye to a wave of murders engulfing the minority community.
On Wednesday morning, masked gunmen ambushed and killed a Palestinian man, who was on his way to work in Haifa.
A preliminary investigation identified the victim as 50-year-old Atef Abu Kalib.
Later in the day, five members of a single family, three men and two women, were killed in a shooting inside a house in Basmat Tab’un, an Arab town north of the occupied lands.
Police chief Kobi Shabtai arrived at the scene of the Basmat Tab’un mass shooting, with far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joining him later.
Ben-Gvir, who has been under pressure for his failure to oversee crime and the police department, was met with shouts of “go home” and “you’re not welcome here” by observers on the site.
“What did he come here for? What is this, putting on a show?” a bystander yelled at the extremist minister. “The time has come for this minister to go home. A shame and a disgrace to … Israel.”
Wednesday’s fatalities brought the number of Palestinian citizens of Israel killed so far this year to 188, compared to 80 recorded during the same period in 2022, according to the Abraham Initiatives anti-violence advocacy group.
Palestinian mayors have accused the Tel Aviv regime of deliberately neglecting their communities and of enabling criminals to act with impunity.
“Israel has the abilities, the Israeli government understands what needs to be done, everybody understands what needs to be done, there simply is no will and no leadership,” said Mansour Abbas, leader of one of the parties that represent Israel’s Palestinian minority.
Last month, Ben-Gvir said the crime wave poses a security threat to Israel and could spill over into Jewish communities, which he termed a “bigger threat” than near-daily murders among Arabs.
Meanwhile, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, has pointed the finger at Israel and its spy agencies for the escalation of violence among Arabs.
The Zionists, he said early this month, “play a dangerous role that aims to engage our people in another struggle to forget their religious and historical ties to the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank, and in exile.”
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