Police: Lod suspects not connected to other murders

Reports that two of the five suspects arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Abiv Abu Katifo, 34, in Lod on Tuesday night could be connected to other recent slayings in the city were unfounded, a police source told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

The two suspects, brothers aged 24 and 26, were arrested along with Katifo's husband, his brother, and his cousin early on Wednesday.RELATED:The murderous culmination of decades of neglectEditorial: Lessons from Lod"We're not saying that any of the suspects directly carried out the shooting at this stage. They are however suspected of involvement," the police source added. "The investigation is still at an early stage."

Katifo, a mother of five, was mortally wounded from multiple gunshot injuries and rushed by unknown individuals to the Assaf Harofe Medical Center in Tzriffin, where she died of her wounds.

All suspects are due to appear at the Ramle Magistrate's Court in the coming hours.

Katifu was gunned down as she entered her vehicle near her home on Tuesday night. She was rushed by unknown individuals to the Assaf Harofeh Hospital in Tzriffin, where doctors pronounced her dead. Those who brought the woman to hospital left without being identified.

Large numbers of police were mobilized to the scene and a homicide investigation has been launched.

The shooting is not only the third homicide in Lod this month, but the thirteenth murder in two years.

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch had recently deployed large numbers of Border Police to Lod in an effort to quell the growing violence in the city following a spate of shootings. On Wednesday, he ordered yet more Border Police into the city, and declared the start of a new drive to seize illegal firearms in Lod.

"Preventing murders, especially 'family honor' slayings, will not be achieved through increased enforcement, but through a change in culture, education, legal deterrence, an increased role by welfare services, and an improvement in infrastructure," Aharonovitch said.

"In Israel, we will not see a situation in which a police officer sleeps in every home," the public security minister said. "When a crimes arrive at the police's door, it means that all the other arms of the state have failed," he added.

"The police cannot replace health workers, courts, social workers, teachers and parents." Lod will in the coming months enter an urban policing pilot scheme, in which municipal inspectors with some police powers will patrol the city's streets, as part of an effort to mitigate violent crime, the Public Security Ministry announced.