As crime continues to ravage the Arab sector, a shootout in the northern town of Tamra on Monday night ended with two dead and two wounded from police fire.
Violence has been ravaging the Arab communities in recent month, with local residents and Joint List lawmakers accusing the government of not doing enough to prevent it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has campaigned in the Arab sector ahead of the March 23 elections, promising to eradicate the violence.
One of the fatalities is a suspect who is thought to have fired at a residential house where the shootout took place. The second is a nursing student Ahmed Hejazi, who is believed to have been passing by when he heard the gunfire and was subsequently killed by the officers who arrived on the scene.
According to police, officers were attempting to stop four suspects from firing at the house, but they instead redirected the fire at the law enforcement, using automatic weapons.
Officers recovered two M16 assault rifles at the scene, which police said were used by the three suspects, with the fourth fleeing the area.
Initially, officers reported that all who had been shot were involved in the incident, but following a preliminary investigation, police said that two of them were not involved in the incident.
Representatives from Police Department for Internal Investigations arrived at the scene, with all officers involved summoned for questioning.
However, sources within police told Ynet shortly after the incident that "officers saw a few people in the proximity to the suspects and that it is unclear whether the two casualties, one of them a student, had anything to do with the confrontation."
A doctor who rushed to the scene to aid the wounded was also lightly wounded by the officers.
"The police are lying, one of the dead had nothing to do with this," said a resident of Tamra. "He was at a nearby facility and when he heard gunfire and went outside, he was shot dead. The other wounded (the doctor) also was not involved."
Following the shootout, hundreds of residents arrived at Highway 70 near the town, protesting and burning tires. Police arrived and dispersed the demonstrators.
Tamra Mayor Dr. Souheil Diab was set to meet with the local police captain to discuss what he called as the excessive use of gunfire by officers.
"The ease with which officers use live fire against Arabs again kills innocent victims," said the Mossawa Center, a civil society organization to promote equality for Arab citizens in Israel.
Since the beginning of 2021 alone, 16 Arab citizens have been murdered.
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Confrontations between police and protestors in Tamra following the shootout
(Photo: Fadi Amon)
Just an hour before the shootout in Tamra, 30-year-old Adham Bazig from Nazareth succumbed to his injuries at a hospital after being evacuated in critical condition, suffering from gunshot wounds.
The past weeks have seen protests throughout the country by Arab citizens against authorities' lack of ability to stop these deaths.
During a demonstration in Umm al-Fahm, five protestors were arrested after confrontations with police broke out. Protestors said the officers used excessive force during the arrests.