Man Shot Dead in Bedouin Village Is 87th Arab Victim of Violence in Israel This Year

A man was shot to death Monday, the latest casualty of a feud between criminals in the Bedouin village of Zarzir in northern Israel, according to a police statement.

Fadi Grifat, 24, was taken to Haemek Hospital in Afula in critical condition, and later succumbed to his wounds.

So far, 87 Arabs have lost their lives to violent crime in Israel this year, with 72 of the victims being Israeli citizens, according to the non-profit organization the Abraham Initiatives. In addition, six Israeli Arabs have been killed by police fire.

Twelve of the victims were women and 46 were under the age of 30. Of the 87 cases this year, 70 involved firearms.

On Wednesday, two Israeli Arabs were shot dead in separate incidents in Acre and Jisr al-Zarqa.

A 54-year-old resident of the predominately Arab city of Shfaram was shot and seriously wounded on Thursday, rounding off a bloody Yom Kippur in Arab communities.

The man was the owner of a supermarket and was hit when a masked man on a motorcycle fired at the store, according to the police.

• Crime Scourge in Arab Community: Two Men Shot Dead, Another Seriously Injured
• A Guiding Israeli Hand Behind Spike in Arab Murder Rates
• Under the Gun: The Crime Epidemic Overwhelming Arab-Israeli Society

Days earlier, shots were fired at the home of the head of the police division for preventing crime in Israel's Arab community.

Earlier this month, President Isaac Herzog called the violence a national emergency and said that “our tendency to use minimizing terms like ‘crime families,’ ‘clan feuds’ and ‘honor killing’ make it harder for us to really go to war on this problem.”