Karem Sultan
Man murdered in shooting 6 months after prison term for security offenses
Karem Sultan of Tira murdered in shooting months after serving more than 2 years for lobbing Molotov cocktails at Israeli cars driving on Highway 6; residents say he was not shooting's target, but was hit as collateral damage.
A man was murdered in the central region Arab city of Tira Sunday, merely six months after being released from prison, where he served time for throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli cars.
Two men present at the scene were wounded lightly and moderately.
The circumstances leading to the shooting remained unclear, but local residents said the victim—22-year-old Karem Sultan—was not the hit's intended target. A police investigation is underway.
Footage of the crime scene
Sultan was sentenced to two years and two months in prison when he was only 18, after being charged with lobbing Molotov cocktails at vehicles driving on Highway 6 in the Tira region in October 2015.
Karem Sultan, 22, was murdered a mere 6 months after being released from prison
Drivers managed to notice the incendiary bottles ahead of time and thus swerved to avoid their impact.
Complaints lodged with police led to a joint investigation with the Shin Bet security service. Less than a month later, six Tira residents—including Sultan—were arrested and charged at the Lod District Court, which ordered them to remain incarcerated until their trials' conclusion.
Suspects then revealed under interrogation that they had decided to throw the Molotov cocktails, which they prepared themselves, due to the incitement raging at the time around the issue of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque.
The murder scene
Sultan was released from prison six months ago. On Sunday evening, as he was standing with a group of other people in Tira, an unknown man walked up to the group and opened fire.
The young man was seriously wounded, and was taken to the Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba along with the shooting's two other victims, where he was later pronounced dead.
A special investigative team from the Sharon District Police was tasked with the murder investigation, as locals insisted he was not the target of the shooting but rather one of the men wounded by it.
