Israeli-Arab Homicides Continue as Man Killed in Ramla

Jerusalem, 23 November, 2023 (TPS) -- An Israeli-Arab man was shot and killed in the city of Ramla in the early hours of Thursday morning, the Israeli Police announced. The killing brings to 217 the number of Israeli-Arabs homicides in 2023, an unprecedented number for one year.

Twenty year-old Sammy Alsmali was shot in what the police said was a violent conflict between two Arab crime families. Alsmali was declared dead at the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Be’er Yaakov.

Police said they found weapons in a nearby house which have been sent to a laboratory for testing.

According to the Abraham Initiative, a Jewish-Arab organization which promotes Arab integration into Israel society, 217 Arab-Israelis have been killed in criminal violence since the beginning of 2023.

For comparison, 116 Arab-Israelis were murdered in 2022.

This year’s spike 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, trafficking in weapons, drugs and women.

Local leaders have called on the government to take action.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported giving the Shin Bet security agency a more active role in fighting the rising crime, but this suggestion was opposed by both Arab leaders and Shin Bet officials.

In the 47 days since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacres and the war in Gaza, there has been a marked drop in crime in the Arab sector.