A four-year-old boy was killed in a playground by a bullet fired from several hundred meters away in the Galilee Bedouin settlement of Bir al-Maksur on Thursday.
MDA paramedics arrived on the scene where they found Omar Hajirat critically wounded and evacuated him to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, where they determined his death.
The shot was reportedly fired from a construction site 300 meters from the playground in which he was playing. Israel Police has arrested four suspects in the shooting.
Paramedics said upon arriving at the scene they encountered an agitated crowd around the bleeding child.
Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev (Labor) stated that his “heart is broken...we will not rest until the case is settled with the shooters.”
Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev (Labor) stated that his "heart is broken at the news of the murder of toddler" and that "we will fight crime and the violence and will not rest until the case is settled with the shooters."
"Our heart goes out to the family of Omar Hajirat, the three-year-old toddler who was shot to death in the middle of the day, and apart from the condolences, there are no words in the face of this horror," said Ola Najami, director of the Safe Communities initiative at the Abraham Initiatives. "This is the reality in which we live, a reality of a complete lack of personal security in Arab localities and neighborhoods. The bullet that hit the child is not a stray bullet, but a bullet intended to kill someone else. This shooting should have been prevented, and in order for such cases not to happen again one must get rid of all the illegal weapons."
"Imran Muhammad Hajirat, a toddler only 4 years old, lost his life at a playground," said Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. "I feel the pain of the grief of the family. We must put an end to the unbearable reality in which Arab society finds itself. We will continue to fight violence together."
"This is a shocking incident, of a toddler boy who was hit by gunfire from criminals who use weapons so lightly, with no respect for human life and cause such a terrible tragedy," said Israel Police on Thursday afternoon. "North District police officers are working every day to get the weapons and criminals off the streets, and everything is being done to reach the shooters in this painful case as well."
"Again, we bear witness to a gross lack in organized crime prevention," tweeted Blue and White MK Ruth Wasserman Lande.
שוב אנו עדים לפשיעה לנשק הבלתי חוקי להשתוללות הבלתי מרוסנת ולהיעדר מנגנוני אכיפה מאויישים, מתוקצבים וחזקים מספיק בכדי להתמודד עם מכלול האתגרים. והפעם הקורבן הוא עמאר בן ה-3 מביר אל מכסור. 900 שוטרים נוספים ב-2022 זה לא מענה מספק! @omerbarlev @AvigdorLiberman pic.twitter.com/90b3WMAjOE
— Ruth Wasserman Lande, רות וסרמן לנדה (@rutilande) January 6, 2022