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Imam shot dead at mosque entrance in Israeli Arab city

An Israeli-Arab Muslim religious leader was shot dead outside a mosque. The incident appears to be criminally related. 

By: World Israel News Staff

An Israeli Arab imam was shot dead at the entrance to a mosque in the city of Umm al-Fahem on Tuesday, in what appears to be a revenge attack between rival families.

Sheikh Mohammed Sa’ada, 45, was shot in the street early in the morning and was pronounced dead at the scene by medics after they were unable to resuscitate him.

While the motive for the shocking murder was not immediately clear, it appeared to be another score-settling chapter in a feud between two families.

The sheikh’s close relative was murdered a year ago, and another relative was shot and seriously wounded two weeks ago.

The Arab sector in Israel suffers from a comparatively high crime rate, while Israeli Arabs have are extremely over-represented in many serious crime categories.

Police statistics from November show that Israeli Arabs are involved in 57 percent of all open murder cases, 55 percent of attempted murder, 59 percent of arson, 45 percent of robbery, and 26 percent of open drug cases.

Israeli Arabs consist of only 21 percent of the general population in Israel.

Israel’s Ynet news reported that Umm al-Fahm, an Arab city in northern Israel, has been plagued with shooting incidents in recent months. A man was shot and seriously injured in front of his family two weeks. At the end last week, another man was moderately wounded after being shot.