30-year-old known criminal shot in Tel Aviv in suspected assassination
Izzat Hamed was the head of a criminal organization in Jaffa and was reportedly known to the police as someone involved in extortion and bribery-related crimes.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFThe scene in Jaffa where Izzat Hamed was killed on Saturday evening, July 18, 2021(photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
A 30-year-old man, who according to Walla News has been identified as Izzat Hamed, was shot to death on Saturday evening in the Abu Kabir neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Eyewitnesses said that they heard a burst of gunfire and noticed a motorcyclist driving away. Hamed was the head of a criminal organization in Jaffa, and according to Walla News he was known to the police as someone involved in extortion and bribery related crimes.The circumstances of the incident are still under investigation.Hamed had long been known to the police. According to a Haaretz article from 2011, he was first arrested along with 23 others after a month-and-a-half long investigation into the crime ring which he ran.He was arrested at the time for ordering a grenade to be thrown through the window of a rival criminal in Yehud, central Israel.In September 2020, a similar incident occurred, when 33-year-old Rashed Dawikat was shot in Jaffa and pronounced dead shortly afterwards. Dawikat was involved with other known criminals in the city, and the police estimated that he was shot as part of a premeditated assassination. Earlier this week, Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev met with the Forum of Arab Council Heads to discuss violence in the Arab sector and try to formulate a plan to significantly cut the crime rate, as since the start of 2021 at least 50 Arab-Israelis have been killed in violent crime related incidents. During the meeting, the Arab Council Heads and Bar Lev discussed how best to harness the Arab sector's leadership at municipal level to assist the ministry's drive to eradicate the widespread, and serious crime rates in Arab towns and villages.
