17-year-old Killed by Stray Bullet While at Home in Northern Israel; Six Detained

A 17-year-old woman whose family has been embroiled in a long-time internal dispute was killed on Tuesday night by stray gunfire in her home in the northern Israel town of Kafr Kana.

Razan Abbas was woken up by gunfire in the middle of the night and went to the window to check what was happening when she was shot at “directly,” her father said in tears.

She was brought to a nearby hospital in critical condition and was later pronounced dead. Six people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement.

“Nobody cares. We are told that the weapons they are taking care of weapons, but there are enough weapons circulating in the area to provide for a militia,” a council member and relative Tareq Abbas lamented.

Following the incident, Kafr Kana's local council declared a general strike and closed schools on Wednesday to mourn Abbas's death and in protest of violence in the Arab community.

Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar said that he has reached out to Razan's father to express his condolences over the “painful and shocking incident,” and vowed to “act resolutely” to “restore the rule of law.”

Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev also condemned the “shocking death” of a girl “with her whole life ahead of her,” and pledged to “continue our fight to eradicate violence and crime on the Arab streets.”

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Abbas's extended family has been involved in an 11-year-old internal dispute between two cousins which has often spilled over into violence, sources from the town said.

There have been several unsuccessful attempts to reconcile the two factions in recent weeks by local mediators, the sources added.

“The shooting of the girl shocked the entire community this morning,” a resident involved in local mediation attempts said.

According to the Abraham Initiatives, an NGO dedicated to furthering coexistence between Arabs and Jews in Israel, 17 people have been killed in the Arab community in Israel in 2022 due to crime-related violence.

This comes after 126 Arab citizens of Israel were killed in crime-related violence in 2021, according to the NGO, the highest year on record.

In 2021, Israel Police solved only 23 percent of the murders in the Arab community in Israel, compared with 71 percent for the Jewish community.