Three murders have occurred in the past 24 hours alone that seem to be related to gang conflicts throughout the country.
Samar Agbaria, a resident of Umm el-Fahm, was shot to death on Thursday evening while sitting in a car at the Kafr Kara intersection. MDA medical staff who were called to the scene attempted to give him medical treatment, but had to pronounce his death.
The police are investigating the possibility that the murder is related to the bloody conflict between the crime organizations of Hariri and Bekri, and it was apparently carried out as a response to a hit that took place in Haifa earlier in the day.
The Haifa hit took place in front of a police officer on duty driving behind the victim's BMW. After arriving at the intersection, the officer saw two armed masked men, one with a Kalashnikov and the other with a handgun, firing barrages of bullets at the car that was driving in front of him.
The police officer got out of the vehicle and fired at the hitmen, but they escaped back into their vehicle and fled the scene. The officer approached the BMW, identified a man who was sprayed with bullets and forwarded the report to the police station.
The victim was a businessman with no criminal record. He owned a café and was in the business of selling hookahs, among other entrepreneurial endeavors, which strengthens the suspicion that this is some form of revenge killing. The investigation is still in its beginning and no suspects have been arrested yet.
Large forces from the Coastal Police District were at the scene, as well as forces which are conducting searches for suspects. The investigation will be conducted by the Major Crimes Unit in Lahav 433.
The commander of the Coastal District, Superintendent Yoram Sofer, conducted a situation assessment on Thursday night together with the command staff and representatives of Lahav 433, in which he directed the increase of police presence in various centers in the district through overt and covert forces in order to prevent further incidents.
"The wounded man was sitting in a car at the intersection while unconscious and suffered gunshot wounds to his body. We performed medical tests, but he was not showing signs of life and his death was determined at the scene of the incident," Senior MDA medic Yarin Harbi recounted.
"The wounded man was sitting in a car at the intersection while unconscious and suffered gunshot wounds to his body. We performed medical tests, but he was not showing signs of life and his death was determined at the scene of the incident."
Senior MDA medic Yarin Harbi
Earlier on Thursday, Mehran Abu Hayat, the cousin of the head of the crime organization Samir Bakir, was killed after he was shot in the head while he was in a crowded restaurant in Haifa in what the police described as an execution. This hit took another victim in the last two weeks of conflict between Hariri and Bakri.
A string of homicides
On Wednesday night, a 19-year-old resident of Jaffa was shot to death on Tsiahatli Street in the city. From a preliminary investigation, it was suspected that the suspect, the victim, and another person, a resident of Jaffa, intended to conduct some sort of deal.
According to the suspect, during the process, an argument developed and as a result he felt his life was in danger, he pulled out a gun that he holds under license as part of his job as a security guard and fired two bullets. In his investigation, he claimed that he aimed the shot into the air, but one of the people involved was still hit by the shot and mortally wounded. That person was later pronounced dead.
Earlier this week, a resident of Rahat died of his injuries after being shot and fatally wounded. Along with him, another man was shot and wounded and is still being treated at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba in serious condition. The police arrested two family members who are suspected of being involved in the incident, and according to current suspicions, the background of the shooting is a conflict within the family.
Double murder in Nazareth
A day earlier, Firas al-Hib, a 33-year-old resident of Nazareth, and his two-year-old toddler son were shot to death in the city. MDA medical arrived at the scene and evacuated the man to the Emek Hospital while performing CPR, but he was pronounced dead at the hospital. Later, after prolonged resuscitation operations, the medical staff at Emek Hospital had to pronounce the toddler dead, too.
Immediately after the double murder in Nazareth, a joint Special Investigation Team of Lahav 433 and the Central, North and Coast districts was established under the direction of the Police Commissioner, Chief Superintendent Kobi Shabtai, to deal with the conflict between the criminal gangs that led to the recent murders in Arab society.
The Police Commissioner directed Lahav 433 and the various districts to hold a joint investigation that includes, on the one hand, the arrests of suspects in the murders and on the other hand the thwarting of planned revenge killings.