Three men were killed in separate shootings in northern Israel and East Jerusalem from Thursday evening to Friday morning, as violent crime plaguing Israel’s Arab minority continued unabated.
In Salem, a small Arab village near Umm al-Fahm, 32-year-old Abed Sbihat was killed while on his way to work as a truck driver early Friday morning.
According to witnesses, the killer exited a car, greeted Sbihat and then opened fire. Medical teams pronounced him dead at the scene. The victim left behind his wife and two children.
Earlier that morning before dawn, a 22-year-old from Haifa was shot by unidentified assailants while on his way back from Umm al-Fahm.
The victim was named as Murad Yousef, from Haifa’s Halisa neighborhood. He was taken by paramedics in critical and unstable condition to Rambam Medical Center, where he soon died of his wounds.
Before midnight in East Jerusalem’s A-Tur neighborhood, 19-year-old Ma’ad al-Hadra was shot and critically wounded. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The young man was reportedly shot during a fight that broke out in the area. Police said they opened an investigation into the incident, and announced Friday afternoon that the case’s details are barred from publication by a court-issued gag order.
The Arab community in Israel continues to suffer a wave of deadly violence, and is on track to experience its most lethal year to date.
In a statement issued Friday, the Abraham Initiatives group said the number of Arabs killed in criminal incidents had risen to 218 since the start of 2025, a 7 percent increase from the same period last year.
Since 2023, the number of Arab Israelis violently killed has been double that of preceding years, with many blaming the rampant homicides on a lack of deterrence. Police have failed to solve most murder cases in the Arab sector, allowing violent crime to go unpunished.
Separately, in Tel Aviv, two young men, ages 19 and 25, were stabbed and seriously wounded in a brawl that erupted early in the morning outside a club in the city center.
Paramedics took both men to Ichilov Medical Center, where they were treated for their injuries.
