The arrest of the suspects in the attempted assassination of a businessman in Acre in April 2023 (Credit: Investigation file)
The murder of Israeli Ghassan Shamsiah in Dubai last Wednesday is yet another painful reminder that the phenomenon of conflicts between criminal organizations in Arab society in Israel, which knows no end – also knows no borders. The conflict between the Tabrani and Rubai families, both originally from Old Acre, which erupted in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, has occupied the Hof District Central Police Unit daily for years. Shamsiah was affiliated with the Tabrani family. Among the eight Israeli suspects arrested by Dubai police following the murder are several members of the Ruba'i family, and some affiliated with it, some of whom moved to Nahariya due to the bloody conflict and some abroad, including Dubai.
The circumstances of the incident are under investigation and it has not yet been determined whether it was an incident that developed spontaneously when the gangs found themselves in the same popular café in the prestigious Business Bay district or something planned in advance. The Foreign Ministry lowered its media profile. The Coast SWAT has stepped up a gear and is cooperating with the authorities in the UAE, which is proud of its zero tolerance for crime like anything that could harm tourism in general and foreign crime in particular. "Zero crime" is Dubai's common slogan. In a statement last night including footage of the suspects, Dubai Police said the suspects and the victim had a family feud in their homeland, which ended with the murder of a young man on May 6, three weeks ago. Dubai is apparently referring to the murder of teacher Hamada Salem, a 30-year-old resident of Acre, who was affiliated with members of the Rubai family. Dubai Police added that the incident in Dubai is a consequence of this family dispute. Salem was murdered by masked men who ambushed him and shot him at close range in a parking lot on Mota Gur Street in Acre.
The scene of the murder in Dubai (Photo: documentation on social networks according to section 27A of the Copyright Law)
Deputy Superintendent Yoni celebrated the questioning of the Hof Command Unit (Photo: Israel Police Spokesperson's Office)
In Acre and its environs, the Hof Unit is busy not only investigating criminal incidents caused by criminal organizations affiliated with the families, but also thwarting events that might have taken place. This is the case, on the one hand, the arrest of 12 members of the Tabrani organization about a year ago, and on the other hand, an assassination attempt on a wealthy businessman affiliated with the Tabrani family, which the SWAT did manage to thwart a month ago. "One side felt that the other side was weakened and tried to bring out events," said a senior police official who found the conflict sleepless.
The thwarted murder occurred two weeks before Salem's murder, on Sunday, April 23. This is according to an indictment filed in the Haifa District Court last week against three Acre residents who are affiliated with the Rubai family. The three, 24-year-old Mohammed Zibak, 22-year-old Riad Ali and 21-year-old Said Ali, were arrested just seconds before shooting and killing the businessman as he was leaving a workout at the well-known gym in a mall on the southern outskirts of Acre. "It was an organization of the most combat guys the organization has, and they had early intelligence: they knew where their object was training, where it parked its vehicle, when it was there and when it was supposed to leave," Deputy Commissioner Yoni Hajaj, head of the questioning unit in the Hof district central unit, told Walla.
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The eight suspects arrested by the Dubai authorities (Photo: social media documentation under section 27A of the Copyright Law)
Beach SWAT detectives had even better intelligence. They "sat on their tails" for a long time, watching them, following them and getting into their innards, including listening to every word they uttered in three cars that participated in the assassination attempt. The suspect in the lead car was 24-year-old Salim Ruba'i, who was arrested and released, in the second car followed by Mohammed and Salim Ruba'i, 22, who were arrested but eventually released, and in the third car were Zibak, Riad Ali and Said Ali.
The Hyundai used by the assassins was stolen a month before the incident from a resident of Holon and its license plates were replaced. The SWAT unit identified him and documented him while they were "cooling him down" while he was parked in Nahariya in preparation for the assassination, where his plates were changed once more while the assassins waited for the right time. According to the indictment, on the evening of the assassination, Muhammad Zibak arrived at the car dressed in black, wearing a mask over his face and black gloves. He leaves in the stolen car and on the way picks up Riad and Said Ali, also dressed in black, black gloves and black visor hats. They sat down in the back seat of the car with two guns. At 18:15 P.M., they parked near the gym, just <> meters from the object's car, finalizing details.
"We hear them saying, 'Stop by the Skoda,'" Hajaj said. At the gym, just a few dozen meters
away, their target, the owner of the Skoda, was training at the time, without knowing that they were waiting for him outside. "We couldn't go in there because we realized there might be a lookout there. They had such good preparation that they didn't even use cell phones in this operation. Everyone knew exactly what they were doing. Where he goes next, where the car is burned and who picks them up. It was a performance squad at the highest level," he explained. For seven long minutes, the assassins sat in the car waiting, and then beach SWAT detectives jumped on them, pulled them out of the vehicle, handcuffed them, searched them and arrested them."
Ghassan Shamsiya, the Israeli murdered in Dubai (Photo: documentation on social networks according to section 27A of the Copyright Law)
Attorney Sasson Bar Oz (Photo: PR)
"They quickly realize that they 'ate it,'" said a source at the medical center who was there, "We hear them say that. After all, they know our cars. We know very well who jumped on them. They were caught with two pistols with a bullet in the barrel. A bottle of gasoline ignite the vehicle when finished. Stolen vehicle with duplicate plates. The vehicle intended to escape them was also seized. How are they going to rationalize all that." The source added: "When their target left the gym he saw our detectives holding on the floor the people sent to kill him, he was in shock, we asked him to evacuate the vehicle, he was also interrogated, but did not cooperate with the police. He knew very well that thanks to her his life was saved, that in five minutes he was no longer with us."
During interrogation, the three remained silent and only claimed that they were on their way to break the Ramadan fast, and in the end they were charged not with attempted murder but with weapons offenses, conspiracy to commit a crime and using a vehicle without permission. The Haifa District Attorney's Office is requesting an extension of their detention until the end of the legal proceedings against them, and in the meantime, while defense attorneys Sasson Bar Oz and Attorney Fadi Sharqawi study the thick investigation file and with their consent, Judge Nitzan Silman extended the detention of the three until another decision. "It is not for nothing that at the end of the day the case that began on suspicion of attempted murder did not come to fruition, since the evidence in the case does not support this thesis and all that remains are lesser offenses," attorney Sasson Bar-Oz told Walla.
Documentation of the arrest of the suspects in the attempted assassination of the businessman in April (Photo: Walla! editorial board, credit: investigation file)
In the meantime, the police have filed another indictment against four, including 24-year-old Salim Ruba'i and 22-year-old Riad Ali, in the Acre Magistrate's Court for another assault on a senior rival, whose boss is suspected of operating from Dubai for a year. The attack was carried out together with another suspect, a minor, on November 14, 2022, while the SWAT was already following them.
The indictment also states that at the police listening stations they were recorded talking about the victim's location and asking others before the incident to verify that he was there. According to this indictment, here they armed themselves with cold weapons, dressed in dark clothes, wore bulletproof vests and masks, showed courage and went to the neighborhood where the victim lives, "put on him like prey," punched and injured him while the driver waited to flee in the motor vehicle. In addition, they beat him on the head and other parts of his body and stabbed him with a sharp object, seven times and then fled.
According to the charges, during the police chase, one of them even shouted at the officers, "I'll
you, you don't know me, I belong to the Rubai family." For this, he is also accused of making threats. Another aggravated assault on a checkpost business on November 3 ended without charge, despite the arrest of suspects, including 24-year-old Rani Jawish Awish, one of eight detainees in Dubai.
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The suspects in the murder, according to Dubai Police (Photo: social media documentation under section 27A of the Copyright Law, none)
"We as the police have a dilemma as to how far we are pulling this and this is really the most difficult issue for a commander in the field. I don't have the privilege of endangering anyone's life and we don't want to get to the point where there's a dead or injured person. I don't want them to kill their target or, God forbid, hurt some little boy who will just pass behind him," admits Deputy Superintendent Yoni Hajaj, "You can't let him complete the offense and on the other hand you also don't want to arrest him so that in the end he will be tried for a stolen vehicle and carrying weapons, and then he will serve three years and return to the street for his criminal activity."
Hajaj also emphasized that "in this case, with an informed and calculated judgment, based on the knowledge we have and capabilities, the unit allowed them to take one more step. All they had to do was open the door and pull the trigger. A second before that, we made the arrest." Despite this, the State Prosecutor's Office ultimately decided not to attribute attempted murder to the three, but Hajaj expressed hope that the court would bring them to justice and they would receive severe punishments: "We thwarted a murder incident that, if carried out, would have led to more incidents and I am glad that we got our hands on such a significant execution squad for such significant crime and that it is now behind bars." He reveals: "This is a very significant event for us, but not the first event of its kind this year. A coastal SWAT team managed to thwart more such incidents in the 90th minute. This is a very violent group, which creates crime in our district and I hope that we managed to deal them a pretty fatal blow to their organization and calm them down for the near future"
That was the hope, but what was thwarted in Acre has now happened in Dubai and the Hof Police Department is watching from afar - and preparing, for fear that the murder will ignite a new fire.
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