2 killed overnight as Israeli-Arab homicides surge

Tel Aviv [Israel], March 9 (ANI/TPS): Israeli Police are investigating two separate overnight shootings as a wave of Israeli-Arab homicides continued, authorities said on Sunday morning.

In the Arab village of Zemr, a man in his 30s was shot at a cafe and taken in critical condition to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, where he was pronounced dead after resuscitation attempts failed. Officers are searching for suspects and collecting evidence at the scene.

Zemr is located in the Arab Triangle, an area south of Haifa with a concentration of Arab municipalities.

Shortly after, another shooting was reported in Kafr Qara, where a local man in his 30s was shot while in a vehicle. Medical teams pronounced him dead at the scene. Police and forensic investigators have launched an investigation, with the incident believed to be criminal.

Kafr Qara is also located in the Arab Triangle.

According to the Abraham Initiative, a non-profit organization that promotes Arab integration into Israeli society, 50 Israeli-Arabs have been killed in violent crimes in 2025.

The spike is a continuation of 230 murders in 2024. In 2023, a record number of 244 Israeli-Arabs were murdered, more than double the 120 homicides in 2022.

The surge in violence is attributed to organized crime groups fighting turf battles and trying to eliminate rivals. Arab criminal organizations have been involved in extortion, money laundering, and trafficking in weapons, drugs and women. (ANI/TPS)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)