“There are no more red lines,” says senior police officer after Arab crime boss’ son and his bodyguard wounded in assassination attempt.
A five-year-old boy and his bodyguard were left wounded after they were intentionally targeted in a gang hit last Friday morning as clashes between warring crime families in Israel reached a fever pitch.
The boy, whose father is the head of a prominent Arab crime family based in the northern city of Umm Al-Fahm, was ambushed by members of a rival mafia.
The child’s bodyguard, who had been hired by his father just days before the attempted murder, moved to shield the child when the assailants opened fire.
According to a Mako report, both the boy and his bodyguard were wounded in the shooting; the child was only moderately hurt and is expected to make a full recovery. The bodyguard is currently hospitalized in serious condition.
“I don’t want to imagine what would have happened here if this child had been killed. There would have been crazy [retaliation], a bloodbath,” a senior police officer, speaking anonymously, told Mako.
“There are no red lines today [when it comes to mafia activity.] Now, the children of senior criminals are also in the crosshairs.”
Over the weekend, the suspected perpetrators of the attack were arrested in a joint operation between local police in the Northern District and security officers from a Border Police unit.
Authorities detained the three men, all residents of the nearby Arab town of Arara, and seized an M-16 rifle and a Glock pistol they believe were used during the assassination attempt.
Ammunition and a motorcycle, which may have also been used during the incident, were also confiscated.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir recently pledged to wage “total war” on organized crime, particularly within Israel’s peripheral Negev and Galilee regions. Murders within Israel’s Arab towns and cities have reached a record high since the beginning of the year, with at least 80 members of the community murdered so far in 2023.
Many of those killings took place within the context of ongoing disputes between crime families, with a smaller number of those murdered being victims of domestic violence and honor killings.