Six Palestinian citizens of Israel have been killed in two separate shootings, police said, the latest fatalities in a crime wave hitting the country’s Palestinian minority.
Five members of the same family were killed on Wednesday in a shooting in northern Israel. The three men and two women were shot dead in broad daylight in the town of Basmat Tabun, northwest of Nazareth, police said in a statement.
The Abraham Initiatives—a Jewish-Arab advocacy and monitoring group in Israel—identified the victims as a couple and their three adult children.
Wednesday’s fatalities brought the number of Palestinian citizens of Israel killed so far this year to 188, according to the Abraham Initiatives.
Palestinians have long voiced anger at what they have said is a deliberate lack of policing in their towns and neighborhoods—giving criminals and drug dealers free rein.
Palestinian citizens of Israel comprise about 20 percent of the country’s 9.7 million population. They have also long suffered from poverty, discrimination, and neglect by the government.
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