Besieged by gang violence, Palestinian citizens in Israel demand more security

Kafr Yasif: Nabil Safiya had taken a break from studying for a biology

exam to meet a cousin at a pizza parlour when a gunman on a motorcycle rode past and fired, killing the 15-year-old as he sat in a black Renault.

The shooting — which police later said was a case of mistaken identity — stunned his hometown of Kafr Yasif, long besieged, like many Palestinian towns in Israel, by a wave of gang violence and family feuds.

“There is no set time for the gunfire anymore,” said Nabil’s father, Ashraf Safiya.

“They can kill you in school, they can kill you in the street, they can kill you in the football stadium.” The violence plaguing Israel’s Arab minority has become an inescapable part of daily life.

Activists have long accused authorities of failing to address the issue and say that sense has deepened under Israel’s current far-right government.

One out of every five citizens in Israel is Palestinian.

The rate of crime-related killings among them is more than 22 times

higher than that for Jewish Israelis, while arrest and indictment rates for those crimes are far lower.