A 67-year-old Arab man was shot dead Tuesday morning on Route 70 near Kabul Junction in western Galilee in the North, in what police described as a criminal-background shooting, amid reports that he was the father of a state witness in a major organized crime corruption case.
The killing, on one of the main roads in the area, as the man was reportedly on his way to work, came after a series of reported threats and attacks involving the state witness’s family.
Magen David Adom said it received the report at 6:28 a.m. and found the man unconscious, without a pulse or breathing, suffering from penetrating wounds. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
Police said they opened an investigation and began searching for suspects, describing the background as criminal.
Multiple media outlets reported that he was the father of a state witness connected to a large corruption and organized crime case in northern Israel. Police did not publicly confirm a motive for the shooting.
Corruption, organized crime in Nazareth, persecution of witnesses
Kan reported that, in January, a suspect was arrested on suspicion of breaking into the witness’s home and delivering a threatening message to his family. A vehicle belonging to the family was later set on fire, according to the report, while the witness was confronting suspects in the investigation. An explosive device then detonated at the witness’s home.
In April, a 61-year-old man who was a relative of another key prosecution witness in the same case was shot dead outside his home in Nazareth. Police said at the time that the background to that shooting was criminal and that the circumstances were under investigation.
The state witness has been publicly linked to a high-profile investigation into alleged corruption involving a northern municipality and an organized crime group. The case led earlier this year to indictments against former municipal officials and alleged crime group figures. Those proceedings remain pending, and the defendants are presumed innocent.
The Abraham Initiatives, a nonprofit organization that tracks crime and violence-related killings in Arab society, said 135 Arab citizens and residents had been killed in crime- and violence-related circumstances since the start of 2026.
Of those, it said, 120 were shot dead. The total compares with 124 victims during the equivalent period last year, according to the group’s data.