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Five dead in one day
Israel was shaken on Sunday by an unusual series of suspected criminal acts of violence that left five people dead in a single day, with police linking all four incidents to organised or criminal violence.
Two people died in explosions involving car bombs in the Tel Aviv district of Jaffa and in the suburb of Holon, and a paramedic said, "There we saw that the vehicle was on fire. The driver was lying next to the car."
In the car explosion in Jaffa, the driver’s six-year-old son was in the vehicle with him, according to the news portal Ynet, and the child was injured and taken to hospital.
Three other people were killed in two separate homicides in Israel’s Arab communities, including two people shot dead in the Israeli Arab town of Kalansuwa and a 19-year-old shot dead outside his home in the Arab town of Tayibe, with authorities suspecting criminals were involved in that case.
Police links, family feud
Investigators were examining suspicion that the act in Jaffa was carried out as revenge for the killing of a teenager last week, while police suspect violence in Kalansuwa was due to a feud between two families, according to Ynet.
In Holon, a paramedic said emergency services arrived quickly after a report of an explosion, and the driver’s death was later confirmed in hospital, according to media reports.
The South China Morning Post likewise said all four incidents are linked to organised or criminal violence, and it quoted police saying, "The background is criminal," in describing the Jaffa bombing.
The South China Morning Post added that a second car bomb struck in Holon, south of Tel Aviv, severely injuring a man who later died at hospital, the force said.
Crime wave and accusations
The Canberra Times reported that Israel’s government is repeatedly accused of not acting decisively enough against violent crime within Arab society, and it said that since the start of the year about 140 people have died as a result of violence within Israel’s Arab population, according to media reports.
It also stated that the Arab minority makes up about 20 per cent of Israel’s 10 million inhabitants, framing the scale of the affected community.
In Sakhnin, Sajedah Abu Saleh said, "Every time I hear that another young person has been killed, all the anxiety returns. A fire burns inside me and will not go out until justice is done," as she relived the morning of August 27, 2023 when Ali was shot three times at a roundabout that now bears his name.
Le Soir’s account of the crime wave put Abu Saleh’s grief and anger alongside the broader claim that the Arab minority accuses the State of Israel amid a crime wave, under the headline "'Arabs have no value': the Arab minority accuses the State of Israel amid a crime wave."
