30-year-old Arab-Israeli woman shot dead in Rahat

Her brother has previously been convicted of threatening her life

By SARAH CHEMLA
The Bedouin settlement of Rahat, South District of Israel. Rahat is the largest Bedouin settlement in Israel, and the only one to have the status of city.October 31 2010. (photo credit: YOSSI ZAMIR/FLASH90)
The Bedouin settlement of Rahat, South District of Israel. Rahat is the largest Bedouin settlement in Israel, and the only one to have the status of city.October 31 2010.
(photo credit: YOSSI ZAMIR/FLASH90)
A 30-year-old Arab-Israeli woman was shot dead on Thursday in the Bedouin city of Rahat.
According to medical sources, she was shot in the head.
The woman was known by police from several other cases of domestic violence in the past, carried out by her brother and her partner. A decade ago, her brother was sentenced to seven months in prison for threatening her life and assaulting her, a lighter sentence after she refused to testify against him in court.
“When we arrived at the scene we saw an unconscious woman with a serious bodily injury. We provided her with medical treatment and performed advanced and prolonged resuscitation operations, but her condition was critical and in the end we had to declare her death," the MDA paramedic Danny Starkman said.
The police said that "around 7:00 p.m., the Israel Police received a report of a shooting incident at a house in Rahat alerting the injury of the woman."
It was also reported that an investigation has been opened and that the circumstances of the shooting are being investigated. One of the neighbors told Haaretz that the woman had recently moved from the center of the country to Rahat, and that she lived in her home with a girl and a relative.
When she was 16, she married her 44-year-old partner, who attacked her violently. She fled to a woman's shelter and complained to the police.
In 2009, while he was in jail, and she was housed in the shelter, her brother threatened her and made her leave.
According to police, he chased her through her neighborhood with a knife while shouting at her, "Stop you whore," punching her and pulling her hair.
He suspected her to have an extramarital affair. She complained about her brother, against whom an indictment was filed for assault and threats.
A source in the Lod municipality said that the woman was a resident of the city until 2018 and is well known due to violence directed at her, she then moved to live in Be'er Sheva.
Since the beginning of the year, 57 Arab citizens have been murdered in Israel, including 11 women. In the same period last year, 55 Arab citizens were murdered. In the whole of last year, 89 civilians from Arab societies in Israel were murdered.