Police raid home linked to fatal clan brawl in Lod

Large numbers of weapons seized in operation linked to killing during feud.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Lod311 (photo credit: RON FRIEDMAN)
Lod311
(photo credit: RON FRIEDMAN)
Police raided a Lod home on Tuesday, seizing large numbers of weapons, including machine guns, a submachine gun and handguns, in an operation linked to the brutal killing of a man in Lod during a feud between two clans on Saturday.
Thirteen people belonging to the Abu Sa’aluk clan, which owned the home, were arrested during the raid.
Police believe Saturday’s incident began in the early evening with an argument at a Lod mosque between the Azberja and Abu Sa’aluk clans. A man from the Azberja clan had attempted to enter the mosque, but was called “filthy” by a member of the rival clan.
The verbal confrontation quickly turned into a mass brawl between the two sides, resulting in a 47-year-old member from the Azberja clan being stabbed to death on Herzl Street.
Large numbers of police from the Lod Police station and the Central Police District’s central unit took part in Tuesday’s raid, which marked a change in the police’s approach towards powerful families in Lod.
“We are going from a static situation to one of preemption,” a police spokesman told Israel Radio on Tuesday.
“We are acting in this way so that no one in Lod will be able to think that they can do what they want,” he added.
Police will rely on intelligence and preventive raids to prevent further clan violence, the spokesman said.