Crime in Israel’s Arab community sees unprecedented increase
Police, for their part, claim that Arabs do not provide the information necessary to identify members of their community who might be involved in committing the crimes
Updated 17 April 2023
Mohammed Najib
RAMALLAH: Israeli police are being sharply criticized after failing to control crime in Arab communities.
Crime in Israel’s Arab community of 1.7 million is witnessing an unprecedented increase, which has raised concern among Arabs about the ability and the intention of the Israeli police to control it.
Fifty-one Arabs were killed since the beginning of the year by organized crime gangs in Galilee, the Triangle, and Negev.
Members of the Arab community and police continue to trade blame over who is responsible for the developments, with the former blaming Israeli police for inefficiency in fighting crime and the latter blaming the community for a lack of cooperation by not providing information on the identity of crime suspects.
In his election campaign, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir promised to strengthen police and eliminate violence in Arab society, but with crime on the rise, senior police officers say it is time for the minister, as well as Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, to take charge and create a body to deal with the issue.
In 2021, about 33 percent of homicide cases were solved, while in 2022, only 21 percent were solved. This year, out of 48 homicide cases, only three were solved.
By comparison, in the Jewish community in 2020, 68 percent of cases were solved. The year 2021 saw that figure rise to 78 percent, and in 2022, 70 percent of murder cases in the Jewish community had been solved.
According to police data, 518 people were killed in the Arab community from 2018 until the beginning of this year — an average of 104 homicides each year.
Mohammed Darawsheh, strategic director of the Givat Habiba Institute and an expert on Arab society in Israel, told Arab News that the rate of deaths among Arabs — who make up 17 percent of the population of Israel — is twice as high as that of last year.
Police are lenient with criminal gangs, which created an environment in which they could flourish, Darawsheh said.
“The police come to suppress demonstrations in Arab society and not to provide services to protect citizens from crime, so crime grows and expands,” he explained.
“I would prefer that my son stay up in a coffee shop in a Jewish town rather than stay up in a coffee shop in an Arab town, where he could be shot and accidentally injured, as happens a lot.”
Darawsheh added that he cannot even open a business, as gang members would come and demand that he pay them a share of his profits.
He said 90 percent of murder cases are related to organized crime.
Meanwhile, Arab experts in Israel consider organized crime to be the biggest challenge facing their community.
Some businesspersons have been compelled to live in mixed Israeli-Arab cities away from the crime-plagued environment of their cities and towns.
Jall Banna, a political analyst from Kufur Yassif in Galilee, told Arab News: “If an Arab uses his weapon against a Jew or the state, he will be tried in a security case and imprisoned for 20 years. If an Arab uses his weapon against an Arab, he will not be detained or imprisoned for more than a few days or weeks; this is the limit.
“I believe that the police, even if they have the tools, do not have the desire to eradicate crime.”
Some Israeli security experts suggest that the Shin Bet should be involved in dealing with the phenomenon of organized crime, given the technology, information and experience at its disposal.
However, this proposal has been met with reservation from some leaders of the Arab community in Israel, who claim that police are indifferent to crimes that result in Arab victims and only take action when there is a threat against the Jewish community.
Police, for their part, claim that Arabs do not provide the information necessary to identify members of their community who might be involved in committing the crimes.
As organized crime shifts to Israeli-Arab mixed cities, the matter has become a strategic threat to the Jewish community.
Banna told Arab News that members of Israel’s Arab community believe that there are “hidden forces” behind the crime.
“Arab society is a kind of fertile ground for crime, especially organized crime,” Banna said.
JERUSALEM: Israel’s government has begun proceedings to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing “prolonged disagreements.” In a letter published late Wednesday, Justice Minister Yariv Levin said the move was over “inappropriate conduct and the existence of significant and prolonged disagreements between the government and the attorney general.” The minister also indirectly accused Baharav-Miara, Israel’s first female attorney general, of politicizing her position as legal adviser of the government. “Legal advice reflects the position of the law,” the letter stated, and should not be “advice that serves as a political tool, misusing its position for political purposes to completely paralyze the work of the government.” Levin submitted a motion of a no-confidence to the cabinet secretary, part of a process that commentators say could go all the way to Israel’s Supreme Court. Baharav-Miara, a fierce defendant of the judiciary’s independence, has often taken positions that clashed with those of Netanyahu’s government. When the prime minister returned to power in 2022 after being ousted, Baharav-Miara warned that his new government’s legislative program threatened to turn Israel into a “democracy in name, but not in essence.” In March 2023, she accused Netanyahu of acting “illegally” when championing the controversial judicial reforms that caused political division and mass protests. After the war in Gaza started, she criticized the unequal enforcement of Israel’s mandatory military service, due to long-standing exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men. Opposition leader Yair Lapid suggested on Wednesday on X that her criticism of the government’s stance on Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community was behind the attempt to sack her. “She only told them two things they needed to do: recruit evaders and stop transferring corrupt funds to the ultra-Orthodox under the table. That’s why they want to oust her,” Lapid wrote on X.
Trump demanded on Wednesday that Hamas “release all of the hostages now, not later,” including the remains of dead hostages, “or it is OVER for you.”
Updated 06 March 2025
Reuters
CAIRO: Hamas said on Thursday that US President Trump’s repeated threats against Palestinians constituted support for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to back out of the Gaza ceasefire and intensify the siege of Gazans.
Trump demanded on Wednesday that Hamas “release all of the hostages now, not later,” including the remains of dead hostages, “or it is OVER for you.”
In a text message to Reuters, Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said: “The best track to release the remaining Israeli prisoners is by the occupation going into the second phase and compelling it to adhere to the agreement signed under the sponsorship of mediators.”
The Gaza ceasefire deal which came into effect in January was negotiated with Trump’s envoy participating alongside envoys of the outgoing Biden administration. It calls for remaining hostages to be freed in a second phase, during which final plans would be negotiated for an end to the war.
The first phase of the ceasefire ended on Saturday, and Israel has since imposed a total blockade on all goods entering Gaza, demanding that Hamas release remaining hostages without beginning the negotiations to end the war.
Palestinians say the blockade could lead to starvation among the 2.3 million people living in Gaza’s ruins.
Trump made his new threats after a White House meeting on Wednesday with a group of hostages who had been released in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
“I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” he said. “Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”
Jordanian border forces clash with smugglers, killing four
Large quantities of narcotics and weapons were seized and transferred to the relevant authorities, the armed forces said
Updated 06 March 2025
Reuters
DUBAI: Jordanian border forces clashed on Thursday with armed smuggling groups attempting to cross the northern border from Syria into Jordan, the Jordan Armed forces said in a statement.
The clashes resulted in the death of four smugglers, while the remaining individuals retreated into Syrian territory.
According to the statement, the smugglers had attempted to exploit poor weather conditions and dense fog to cross the border, but Jordanian forces “applied engagement rules to prevent their infiltration.”
Large quantities of narcotics and weapons were seized and transferred to the relevant authorities, the armed forces said.
The amount of the seized drugs was not disclosed.
In January, Jordan and Syria agreed to form a joint security committee to secure their border, combat arms and drug smuggling and work to prevent the resurgence of Daesh militants.
Western anti-narcotics officials say the addictive, amphetamine-type stimulant known as captagon has for years been mass-produced in Syria and that Jordan is a transit route to the oil-producing Gulf states.
Jordan’s army has conducted several pre-emptive airstrikes in Syria since 2023 that Jordanian officials say targeted militias accused of links to the drug trade, as well as the militias’ facilities.
Trump issues 'last warning' to Hamas to release all remaining hostages held in Gaza
“Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you,” Trump says
Updated 06 March 2025
AP
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued what he called a “last warning” to Hamas to release all remaining hostages held in Gaza, directing a sharply worded message after the White House confirmed that he had recently dispatched an envoy for unprecedented direct talks with the militant group.
Trump, in a statement on his Truth Social platform soon after meeting at the White House with eight former hostages, added that he was “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job.”
“Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you,” Trump said. “Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted!”
The pointed language from Trump came after the White House said Wednesday that US officials have engaged in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials, stepping away from a long-held US policy of not directly engaging in the militant group.
Confirmation of the talks in the Qatari capital of Doha come as the Israel-Hamas ceasefire remains in the balance. It’s the first known direct engagement between the US and Hamas since the State Department designated the group a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to provide detail on the the substance of talks, but said President Donald Trump has authorized his envoys to “talk to anyone.” Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries have served as mediators with Hamas for the US and Israel since the group launched its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war.
“Look, dialogue and talking to people around the world to do what’s in the best interest of the American people is something that the president ... believes is a good-faith effort to do what’s right for the American people,” she said.
Leavitt added that Israel has been consulted about the direct engagement with Hamas officials, and noted that there are “American lives at stake.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office offered a terse acknowledgement of the US-Hamas talks. “Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas,” the prime minister’s office said.
Israeli officials say about 24 living hostages — including Edan Alexander, an American citizen — as well as the bodies of at least 35 others are believed to still be held in Gaza.
Adam Boehler, Trump’s nominee to be special envoy for hostage affairs, led the direct talks with Hamas. Boehler, founder and CEO of Rubicon Founders, a health care investment firm, was a lead negotiator on the Abraham Accords team during Trump’s first term that strove to win broader recognition of Israel in the Arab world.
The talks, which took place last month, focused mainly on the release of American hostages, and a potential end of the war without Hamas in power in Gaza, according to a Hamas official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The official added that no progress was made but “the step itself is promising” and more talks are expected. Egyptian and Qatari mediators helped arrange the talks.
The direct engagement comes as continuation of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire remains uncertain. Trump has signaled that he has no intentions of pushing Netanyahu away from a return to combat if Hamas doesn’t agree to terms of a new ceasefire proposal, which the Israelis have billed as being drafted by US envoy Steve Witkoff.
The new plan would require Hamas to release half its remaining hostages — the militant group’s main bargaining chip — in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Israel made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners, a key component of the first phase.
Trump on Wednesday welcomed eight former hostages — Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel, Aviva Siegel, Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher and Noa Argamani — to the White House.
“The President listened intently to their heartbreaking stories,” Leavitt said. “The hostages thanked President Trump for his steadfast efforts to bring all of the hostages home.”
The talks between US and Hamas officials were first reported earlier Wednesday by the news site Axios.
Leavitt, the White House press secretary, is one of three administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First- and Fifth-Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
How doctors in diaspora are helping resuscitate Syria’s broken health system
Shortages of food and medicine are compounding Syria’s suffering as the nation marks its first Ramadan since the fall of Assad
Aid agencies are working to prop up the country’s shattered infrastructure, as the health system creaks under ongoing US sanctions
Updated 06 March 2025
ANAN TELLO
LONDON: Brought to the brink of collapse by more than a decade of civil war, fragmentation, sanctions, and the displacement of countless medical professionals, the Syrian Arab Republic’s health system is on life support.
With the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in December and the rise of a fledgling transitional authority, Syria now faces the daunting task of rebuilding a unified and resilient health sector from amid the ruins.
Data from the World Health Organization shows that just 57 percent of Syria’s hospitals and 37 percent of its primary health centers are fully operational. However, even these suffer severe shortages, leaving millions unable to access basic services.
“Hospitals are outdated, primary health care centers lack essential services, technology is obsolete, and there is no health insurance, funding, or digitization,” Dr. Zaher Sahloul, head of the US-based medical charity MedGlobal, told Arab News.
“The Ministry of Health is tasked with resuscitating the healthcare system with a very limited capacity and a small cadre of health administrators. The whole healthcare system needs to be rebuilt.”
A senior Syrian health official recently told the Iraq-based Shafaq News that interim authorities have devised “a short-term emergency plan spanning three to six months, prioritizing fuel, electricity, and vital medical supplies.
Zuhair Qarat, director of planning and international cooperation at Syria’s Ministry of Health, said the country is experiencing critical shortages of essential medical supplies, fuel, and even food for patients and staff.
To pave the way for recovery, local nongovernmental organizations and international aid groups have launched their own initiatives, like MedGlobal’s “Rebuilding Syria” campaign, to help address these shortages.
MedGlobal, a US-based medical charity, has launched the “Rebuilding Syria” campaign to help address shortages in health care services. (Photo courtesy of MedGlobal)
Their efforts come as Muslims in Syria observe their first Ramadan since the fall of the regime. Food shortages during the fasting month have only intensified the suffering and highlighted the need for additional aid.
A recent report by the World Food Programme found that more than half of Syria’s population — 12.9 million people — are food insecure, with about 3 million facing acute hunger. Malnutrition, especially in children, weakens the immune system and can lead to a range of health problems.
MedGlobal’s Sahloul said that although Syrian doctors “are very capable, working against all odds,” the average salary for a doctor is just $25 a month — barely enough to cover three days of food and transportation.
“The needs are immense, while the funding is limited, especially with the persistence of sanctions,” he said.
About 3 million Syrians are facing acute hunger, and children are the most vulnerable, according to a recent report by the World Food Programme. (Photo courtesy of MedGlobal)
Coinciding with the Muslim holy month, MedGlobal has launched a special appeal for donations.
“In Ramadan, we are ramping up our fundraising campaign for the many programs we are offering, especially lifesaving dialysis services, medications for poor patients with chronic diseases, and supporting lifesaving heart procedures to patients with cardiac disease in public hospitals,” said Sahloul.
“We also started a new program to provide meals to patients and medical staff in two public hospitals in Homs.”
MedGlobal has been working to address medical supply shortages by ramping up its in-kind donation programs to Syrian hospitals.
“We recently sent a shipment of medical supplies worth $20 million, to be distributed to hospitals in coordination with the Ministry of Health,” said Sahloul.
Workers unload medical and health supplies to Syria, delivered by the World Health Organization at the Istanbul International Airport in Turkiye on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
In addition to donations, MedGlobal and its partners are engaging Syrian expatriates in postwar recovery. One key effort is REViVE, launched by Syrian experts in global health, healthcare administration, public health, economics, informatics, and mental health.
Another initiative, the Homs Healthcare Recovery, also known as Taafi Homs, employs 625 Syrian doctors in the diaspora to develop a plan to support public hospitals.
“Through the initiative, we activated the only cardiac catheterization center in Homs at Al-Walid Hospital, launched a mental health program to support victims of torture and freed prisoners, and provided training to recent psychiatry graduates in coordination with the University of Illinois at Chicago,” said Sahloul.
IN NUMBERS
• 14.9 million Syrians in need of healthcare services. * $56.4m
• $56.4 million Funds required to address health needs.
(Source: WHO)
“We also procured critical medical equipment, including an eye echo machine for the city’s only public eye hospital and a neurosurgical microscope for the university hospital. Additionally, we delivered 1,000 life-saving dialysis kits to three hospitals and dialysis centers.
“Similar initiatives have begun in Deir ez-Zor and rural Damascus.”
And while these initiatives are providing Syrians with much-needed health services, Sahloul stressed that the full collaboration of the new health authorities remains key to their success.
Although the fall of the Assad regime has opened a path for the health sector’s recovery, significant challenges remain. These include the absence of a state-led transition strategy, the continued brain drain of health professionals, and US sanctions.
In this picture taken on May 2, 2023, female patients receive treatment at the Hematology and Oncology department run by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) at Idlib Central Hospital in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian city. (AFP/file)
“At this early stage, the focus is only on immediate and urgent needs and stopping the bleeding,” Sahloul said. “This is necessary but is not enough.
“A new strategy must be drafted to address health governance, human resources, health information systems, training, and education. It should place the Ministry of Health and related ministries at the center, supported by local and international NGOs, as well as UN agencies.
“There should be greater coordination and collaboration between the Ministry of Health, NGOs, and UN agencies. This is not happening at present for many reasons.”
In this picture taken on May 2, 2023, Rabie, a teenage cancer patient, speaks with his physician oncologist Abdel-Razek Bakkour as he lies in a bed at the Hematology and Oncology department run by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) at Idlib Central Hospital in Syria. (AFP/file)
Failing to develop a clear strategy amid ongoing shortages of basic services and limited resources “will further cripple the healthcare system, drive more brain drain, worsen healthcare outcomes more than the war’s impact, and allow disease outbreaks,” he added.
Sahloul also stressed the “urgent need” to lift “crippling” US sanctions, which had been imposed on the Assad regime but continue to weigh on the new government, to achieve a full recovery for the medical sector.
“Humanitarian and emergency aid won’t be enough,” he said.
In addition to destroyed infrastructure, funding shortfalls, and supply shortages, the exodus of medical professionals has devastated Syria’s health system.
Girls sits near damaged buildings in the devastated Hajar al-Aswad area near the Yarmuk camp for Palestinian refugees on the southern outskirts of Damascus on December 23, 2024. (AFP)
The conflict, which began in 2011 following Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, led to a loss of more than 70 percent of Syria’s health workforce. By 2021, the International Rescue Committee said there was just one doctor for every 10,000 people.
“The resourceful Syrian diaspora should be embraced and allowed to help,” said Sahloul, noting that “there are more than 12,000 Syrian-American doctors and a similar number in Germany.”
Syrians now make up the largest group of foreign doctors in Germany, The Associated Press reported in December. German officials have even said Syrian physicians are “indispensable” to the nation’s health system.
Sahloul said stopping the brain drain must be the top priority. “Every young doctor or new graduate I met in Syria is thinking of leaving,” he said. “This is not good for the future of the country and its health.”
Members of the Syrian community rally in Berlin, Germany, on Dec. 8, 2024, to celebrate the end of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's rule. The Syrian war has resulted in an acute shortage of health workers in the country. (AFP/File)
However, he added, “retention of healthcare workers requires improving compensation first and foremost, improving training and education, updating technology, and updating hospitals.”
In the meantime, NGOs are finding ways to leverage Syrian expatriates to aid the recovery. “Attracting Syrian specialists back is a challenge, but there are always creative solutions,” said Sahloul.
“Syrian expatriate physicians volunteering within MedGlobal and other diaspora NGOs are ready to contribute to medical and surgical missions, as well as tele-health, tele-psych, and online education and training — initiatives we’ve implemented across various regions over the past 14 years.”
Syria's yearslong war has resulted in an acute shortage in health care manpower. (Photo courtesy of MedGlobal)
Meanwhile, Syria faces multiple public health crises, including the rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria due to unchecked antibiotic use and limited lab testing.
Sahloul said a mental health crisis is also unfolding. This has been fueled by torture survivors, the families of the forcibly disappeared, victims of violence and displacement, returning refugees, and drug addiction linked to the production of the amphetamine-type stimulant captagon.
“There are very limited resources to manage the mental health crisis and festering drug addiction,” he said.
A man walks through a destroyed neonatal care ward at a hospital that was hit by a reported air strike in the Syrian village of Shinan, Idlib, on November 6, 2019. (AFP File)
Syria also faces an epidemic of noncommunicable diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, chronic kidney disease, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“Many patients cannot afford their medications — a problem compounded by one of the highest smoking rates in the world,” said Sahloul.
Although Assad’s portraits have been removed from hospitals in areas once under his regime’s control, anything beyond this surface level change remains unlikely without the lifting of US sanctions and a clear recovery strategy.
For now, Syria’s doctors will continue to fight an uphill battle, struggling to keep the lights on amid ongoing electricity and fuel shortages, and keeping themselves and their patients fed, let alone provide lifesaving care.
