Ten people have been murdered in three days, from Friday to Sunday, in seven different cases, raising the number of people murdered in Arab society since the beginning of 2025 to 76, according to the Abraham initiatives.
In one case, two brothers were murdered in Ramle, and in another, three young men were murdered, two of whom were standing near the target of the assassination in a hookah business in the city in the Judean Hills.
In addition to the deaths, two different violent incidents were recorded in Tira on Sunday, in which one person was moderately wounded and another person was critically wounded after being shot while in his vehicle. The police have opened an investigation.
The latest incident saw a man murdered on Sunday morning in Nazareth. Elias Motran, 31, was taken to the English City Hospital in critical condition and was later pronounced dead after arriving at the hospital.
Motran, who was on his way to work, stopped at a bakery to buy pastries and a drink, and the shooters, who were apparently ambushing another family member, did not locate their target and decided to murder the deceased, who was shot at close range.
A large number of police arrived at the scene and opened an investigation to clarify the circumstances of the murder, which was criminal. Investigators collected evidence from the scene, collected security cameras, and police began extensive searches in an attempt to track down suspects in the act.
Immediately following the murder, Police Commissioner Danny Levy held a situation assessment and visit to the city of Nazareth and met with Police officers who were securing the city during the Christian holiday of Palm Sunday.
He was accompanied by the commander of the Northern District, Asst.-Ch. Meir Eliyahu.
"I have instructed to continue to reinforce the Northern District with large forces and special units, in order to ensure the safety of the normative public," Levy said. "Special units will operate in the Northern District in order to combat serious crime. We will not allow criminals to disrupt the daily lives of normative citizens – and we will act with all our might to stop them and bring them to justice."
A wave of violence
Several hours before the murder in Nazareth, Muhammad Tarabiya, a 28-year-old resident of the city, was shot dead in Sakhanin while sitting in a car outside a bakery. Tarabiya was critically injured and taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The police believe that the killing was part of a conflict between criminals. Large police forces arrived at the scene and began an investigation, along with extensive searches in an attempt to track down the suspects.
Also, on Saturday, shortly after midnight, Anan Younis Nassar, 49, from Arrabe, was killed by an explosion of a bomb planted in his car. Police forces arrived at the scene and began an investigation to clarify the circumstances of the incident. A police sapper examined the vehicle in order to clear the scene, and investigators began collecting evidence.
In the midst of this wave of murders, a triple murder took place in Ramle when two shooters riding electric bicycles and wearing helmets arrived at the entrance to a hookah business.
They opened fire with automatic weapons, spraying bullets in all directions, even when passersby were present. The aim was to cause the death of Bilal Abu Ghanem, a member of the well-known crime family who was present in the store.
Abu Ghanem was killed, but Saleh Afifi and Baha Amiro, residents of Ramla, were also murdered by the spray.
A police investigation showed that Abu Ghanem was not involved in the criminal aspects of the family and that he murdered only because of his family ties.
The police believe that the murders occurred in the context of a bloody clan conflict, and it is not for nothing that after the murder, they arrested a Lod resident in his 20s on suspicion of smuggling. This came after carrying out various investigative actions, including the use of advanced technological means and entering the compound of one of the well-known clans in Lod.
At the same time, Central District task forces, together with the 33rd Gideon Unit in Lahav 433-National Crime Unit, and Border Police, operated in the criminal compounds in Ramle and Lod, and arrested a number of suspects in connection with the latest murder and the murder that occurred a day earlier, in which the two Al-Shamli brothers Jalal and Matin were killed as part of the clan conflict in Ramla.
Central District police forces under the command of District Commander Asst.-Ch. Yair Hetzroni arrested three suspects in the act.
The incident in question is suspected to have led to a revenge killing in a hookah business, in which three Ramle residents lost their lives, only Abu Ghanem, as mentioned, allegedly belongs to one of the families involved in this bloody conflict.
Another killing took place in Shfaram. There, 60-year-old Khaled Su'ad was shot to death while he was in his vehicle near his home in Shfaram.
Police arrived at the scene and began an investigation, during which the suspicion grew that this was a direct continuation of the bloody conflict between the well-known Su'ad and the Khaldi families in Shfaram, a conflict that has already claimed quite a few victims.
