Two men were shot dead in Arab cities Tuesday, with both homicides apparently tied to feuding criminal elements.

Police opened investigations into both shootings. It was not immediately clear if there was a connection between them.

In Nazareth, a 29-year-old resident of the city was critically wounded, and then later died of his injuries, the Israel Police said in a statement.

He was identified in Hebrew media as Moanas Marwat.

Police said the shooting was due to warring crime groups. According to Hebrew media reports, the incident was apparently tied to an ongoing war between the Bakri and Hariri crime families.

A running feud between the Bakri and Hariri crime families is thought to have claimed dozens of lives, including the mass killing of five people at a car wash in Nazareth in June.

Earlier this year, Marwat’s brother Osama Marwat was shot dead in the city.

Hours earlier, a man was found fatally shot in a car in Kafr Qara.

Magen David Adom first responders who were called to that scene said the man had gunshot wounds and no vital signs. They extracted him from the vehicle but efforts to resuscitate him failed, and he was declared dead.

Israel Hayom identified the man as Issa Ghazi, in his 30s. Ghazi’s brother Omar Ghazi was killed last year in a car explosion in the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Lod.

It was the second homicide in the city since the beginning of the week. On Sunday, resident Mohammad Abu Vassal was shot dead as he sat in a car.

The anti-violence group Abraham Initiatives said the deaths brought to 220 the number of people killed by violence in the Arab community since the beginning of the year. During the same period in 2022, there were 103 deaths from violence.