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Violence is Peaking in Israel's Arab Community

A general view shows the Arab-Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm in the foreground and Wadi Ara in the background, Israel January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
A general view shows the Arab-Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm in the foreground and Wadi Ara in the background, Israel January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
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Violence is Peaking in Israel's Arab Community

A general view shows the Arab-Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm in the foreground and Wadi Ara in the background, Israel January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
A general view shows the Arab-Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm in the foreground and Wadi Ara in the background, Israel January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Violence in the Israeli Arab community continues to rise despite a number of campaigns that were launched by Arab masses last year against crime and Israeli police’s plan to confront the spread of violence.

Two men were killed in separate overnight incidents in two different areas, according to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan).

Yousef Abu Sata, 25, was shot dead in the southern town of Rahat, and Ahmad Jamal, 27, was shot dead during a fight as part of an extended dispute between families in Kabul village.

The killings came few hours after Fahmi Hinawi was killed in Lod and Mohammad Badran in Jatt village in the Triangle area of Haifa District.

The crimes took place during armed clashes during which houses were torched and a number of casualties were reported in some Arab villages and areas.

The killing of these four men raised the crimes victims’ tally to 98, including 18 women, since the beginning of 2020, according to data received from the Aman Center (the Arab Center for a Safe Society).

Saturday’s crimes have shed light on the unprecedented spread of violence in the Israeli Arab community.

Israeli media has reported that the Arab community continues to plunge into violence. However, community leaders accuse the Israeli government of failing to confront the crimes.

Arabs have been urging the Israeli government to boost security in the Arab regions to prevent the spread of crime instead of inciting against the Arab community and its culture.

Arab MK Ahmad Tibi slammed the government last week and said a country whose prime minister boasts about killing a nuclear scientist in central Tehran is not capable of arresting a fugitive who killed his wife in Israel.

Former MK Talab El-Sana also verbally attacked the government in an article that was published in Maariv newspaper and stressed that whoever can put his hands on senior Hamas member Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai is capable of finding the killers in Rahat and Nazareth.

However, officials in Israel accuse the Arab community of being characterized by a culture of violence and that its members don’t cooperate with the police.

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Qatar Gives Israel, Hamas Final Draft of Gaza Truce Deal after Midnight Talks ‘Breakthrough’, Official Says

This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising from explosions above destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on January 13, 2025 amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising from explosions above destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on January 13, 2025 amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Qatar Gives Israel, Hamas Final Draft of Gaza Truce Deal after Midnight Talks ‘Breakthrough’, Official Says

This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising from explosions above destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on January 13, 2025 amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising from explosions above destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on January 13, 2025 amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Mediator Qatar gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of a deal to end the war in Gaza on Monday, after a midnight "breakthrough" in talks attended by US President-elect Donald Trump's envoy, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters.

The official said the text for a ceasefire and the release of hostages was hammered out at talks in Doha which included the chiefs of Israel's Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies and Qatar's prime minister as well Steve Witkoff, who will become US envoy when Trump takes office next week. Officials from the outgoing US administration are also thought to have participated.

"The next 24 hours will be pivotal to reaching the deal," the official said.

Israel’s Kan radio, citing an Israeli official, reported on Monday that Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar had received a draft and that the Israeli delegation had briefed Israel’s leaders. Israel, Hamas and the foreign ministry of Qatar did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.

Officials on both sides, while stopping short of confirming that a final draft had been reached, described progress at the talks.

A senior Israeli official said a deal could be sealed within a few days if Hamas replies to a proposal. A Palestinian official close to the talks said information from Doha was "very promising", adding: "Gaps were being narrowed and there is a big push toward an agreement if all goes well to the end."

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have worked for more than a year on talks to end the war in Gaza, so far fruitlessly.

‘HELL TO PAY’

Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration is now widely seen in the region as a de facto deadline. The president-elect has said there would be "hell to pay" unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office, while outgoing President Joe Biden has also pushed hard for a deal before he leaves.

The official said talks went until the early hours of Monday, with Witkoff pushing the Israeli delegation in Doha and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani pushing Hamas officials to finalize an agreement.

The head of Egypt's general intelligence agency Hassan Mahmoud Rashad was also in the Qatari capital as part of the talks, the official said.

Trump envoy Witkoff has travelled to Qatar and Israel several times since late November. He was in Doha on Friday and travelled to Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday before returning to Doha.

Biden also spoke on Sunday by phone with Netanyahu, stressing "the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal," the White House said.

Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, and most of its population displaced.

Both sides have agreed for months broadly on the principle of halting the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel. However, Hamas has insisted that the deal must lead to a permanent end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hardline nationalist who has opposed previous attempts to reach a deal, denounced the latest proposals as a "surrender" and a "catastrophe for the national security of the state of Israel".