The Israel Police announced on Thursday that they had solved the attempted assassination of Arraba Mayor Ahmad Nassar, who was shot in the northern Israeli city on March 8.
Police filed a prosecutor’s declaration against the suspected shooter, a 26-year-old Arraba resident, as well as against the alleged person who sent him, a 56-year-old relative of the mayor, police said.
According to the investigation, the shooting was allegedly linked to garbage disposal tenders in the city.
During the attack, the mayor was shot seven times and seriously wounded. Dr. Anwar Yassin, who serves as head of a local committee in Arraba, was moderately wounded in the shooting.
Police said investigators collected evidence tying the 56-year-old suspect to the case, alleging that he dispatched the shooter to carry out the attack.
The prosecution is expected to file an indictment against both suspects in the coming days.
Violence in Arab society has 'crossed a red line'
The shooting initially prompted widespread condemnation from civil society groups and local activists, who warned that the attack marked a dangerous escalation in violence within Arab society.
Following the March incident, the Abraham Initiatives said that violence in Arab society had “crossed a red line” by targeting a public official.
“This is not only an Arab problem, this is what collapse looks like,” the organization said at the time. “An attempted murder of a mayor is an attack on the most basic institutions of government in the state.”
The organization called on the government to act urgently, warning that the incident was “not just a matter of governance, but a real threat to Israeli democracy,” and urged police to apprehend the shooters and bring them to justice.
The Forum of Families of Murder Victims in Arab Society, which is organized and supported by Standing Together, also condemned the shooting, saying at the time that “crime is continuing at full force.”
“The crime organizations are afraid of nothing, certainly not of the failing Israeli police,” the forum said. “As we presented to the President of the State, a fundamental change is required in the state’s approach to the surging crime and its direct impact on Arab society. Abandoning citizens to violence and crime is the real existential threat to all of our lives.”