Palestinian citizen of Israel becomes fourth shooting victim in 24 hours

A Palestinian man was killed in the early hours of Sunday in a shooting attack in the Israeli city of Lod, local sources say.

Jamil Zabarqa, 30, was killed by unknown assailants inside a fuel station in Lod, making him the fourth Palestinian citizen of Israel to be killed within 24 hours.

More than 46 Palestinian citizens of Israel have been killed since the start of 2021 in an ongoing wave of violence, which activists blaming Israeli police for allegedly failing to prevent and investigate these attacks.

On Saturday, three Palestinian family members were killed in a shooting attack outside the village of Eilabun, in the Galilee region.

A 58-year-old man along with his wife, 46, and his daughter, 16, were all killed in the shooting which targeted them while they were inside their vehicle. A second daughter, 9, sustained moderate injuries.

Police brutality

Palestinian citizens of Israel make up 20 percent of the Israeli population and face systematic discrimination. They complain of being treated as second-class citizens in comparison to their Jewish counterparts.

Large segments of the Israeli public see Palestinian citizens as a demographic threat to Israel's Jewry, with discrimination entrenched across housing, public services, education and employment.
Palestinian citizens of Israel are often at odds with the Israeli police – an institution they believe is taking a passive role in stopping a gun violence epidemic within their community.

Palestinian gun violence in Israel accounts for over 60 percent of all murder victims nationwide. There are more than 400,000 illegal weapons among Palestinians in Israel, despite the population being just over two million.