Police opened an investigation into a fatal shooting in Lod on Friday, as an unprecedented wave of violent crime in Arab Israeli communities throughout 2023 appeared to continue unabated into the new year.
According to a police statement, a 30-year-old male resident of the mixed central city was shot near his home. The victim was taken in critical condition to the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Be’er Yaakov, where doctors pronounced his death.
The shooting was apparently connected to organized criminal activity, police said.
The Ynet news site reported that the victim was Lod resident Mahmoud Abu Jenin, 28.
There were no immediate arrests made.
Central District Police Commander Avi Bitton carried out an assessment at the scene of the shooting. According to a police statement, Bitton said law enforcement would be increased in the city to improve residents’ sense of safety.
In 2024 so far, six members of the Arab community have been killed in violent circumstances, according to a Friday statement from the Abraham Initiatives, a coexistence organization that tracks crime statistics.
Of the six, four were shot to death, two were under the age of 30 and one was a woman.
More Arabs were murdered in 2023 than in any previous year — and over twice as many as the previous year — according to a year-end report published last week by the coexistence organization.
Many Arab Israeli community leaders put the blame on the police, who they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence, which includes family feuds, mafia turf wars and violence against women.
The communities have also suffered from years of neglect by state authorities. More than half of Arab Israelis live below the poverty line, and their cities and towns often have crumbling infrastructure and poor public services.
Meanwhile, authorities have blamed burgeoning organized crime and the proliferation of weaponry, while some have pointed to a failure by communities to cooperate with law enforcement to root out criminals.