Murdered in the north: Sarit Ahmad, 18, from Kafr Kasra; Her brother was previously imprisoned for threatening her life - voila! news

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the scene of the shooting in Yafia (Eli Ashkenazi)

Sarit Ahmad, an 18-year-old resident of Kisra, was the girl shot to death today (Friday) at the Kishor junction in the Western Galilee. Ahmed was previously threatened because of her sexual orientation, and in 2021 her brother was tried and jailed after she complained to the police. She was transferred to a shelter and last month filed another complaint about threats from her brother. The police opened an investigation into the incident and said that officers from the area began searching for the perpetrator of the shooting.

An MDA team called to the scene performed CPR on her, and at the same time evacuated her to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya - but there the doctors were forced to pronounce her dead. A preliminary investigation revealed that Ahmad was sitting in her car at the intersection when she was shot in the upper body.

A senior MDA medic who was called to the scene, Hasib Shehadeh, said: "The injured woman was lying on the road unconscious and suffering from a penetrating wound to her body. We gave her medical treatment and evacuated her to the hospital while performing CPR while she was in critical condition."

The scene of the shooting, Kishor junction east of Yarka (Photo: Israel Police Spokesperson's Office, Photo: Israel Police Spokesperson's Office)

The police assigned the investigation of the incident to the Asher District Crime Fighting Unit. This is the second homicide in two days to occur within the Northern District's purview, but will be investigated outside of it. This comes after yesterday's police commissioner assigned the investigation into the shooting in Yafia, in which 5 people were murdered, to Lehav 433. A senior police official said the Northern District is to its limit in investigating serious crime cases that have yet to be solved.

According to the Abraham Initiatives, an organization that monitors violence in Arab society, "99 Arabs lost their lives in 2023 in circumstances related to violence and crime, of whom 92 were civilians, and seven were non-citizens." This compares with the same period last year, when there were 35 victims.

The murder of Sarit Ahmed comes against the backdrop of a general strike held today by the High Follow-Up Committee of Israeli Arabs in Arab Society in response to yesterday's shooting incident in the village of Yafia, in which five young men were shot dead. As part of the strike, a protest march was held in Lod, attended by hundreds of Arab residents of the city.

The scene of the shooting in Yafia, yesterday (Photo: Israel Police Spokesperson's Office)

Hila Pe'er, chairwoman of the Association for LGBT Rights, said after the murder: "It is difficult to describe the pain over the murder of the young woman after she was threatened on the basis of her sexual orientation. This is a sad day for the gay community and the entire Israeli public when such a murder takes place. The tragic loss must shake Israel's welfare and law enforcement systems in order to provide LGBT people in Arab society with full personal security and increase existing responses. Many members of the gay community in Arab society live their lives in the closet, in fear and encounter threats to their lives."

Pe'er added, "When it comes to a girl who has been threatened in the past on the basis of her sexual orientation, we demand that the police thoroughly investigate the circumstances of the incident. It is inconceivable that as a society we should ignore the murder of an 18-year-old girl. This harsh reality cannot continue."

Director General of the Women's Lobby: "Ben-Gvir has completely lost control", the minister at the scene of the murder in Yafia (Photo: Eli Ashkenazi)

Naamat Chairwoman Hagit Pe'er said in response to the murder: "Murder haunts murder, and the National Security Minister's solution is to flood the streets with tens of thousands more weapons. If anyone has the illusion that this violence remains in one part or another of society, he is wrong. This is a contagious epidemic and it affects us all. It's not clear what motivates him, but concern for our safety clearly doesn't."

The director of the Women's Lobby, Hadas Danieli Yellin, also said following the murder: "Murder pursues murder. Violence is rampant. And Minister Ben-Gvir wants to flood the streets with more weapons. The girl shot to death this evening in Yarka is the 17th woman murdered since the beginning of the year, and the seventh woman murdered in Arab society. Violence in the streets is rampant, and civilians are paying the price. Minister Ben-Gvir has completely lost control and failed in his duty to ensure the protection of civilians. Instead of proposing a serious emergency plan to deal with the violence, he is promoting reform that would flood civilian space with another 30,000 weapons. Flooding the streets with weapons will only add more fuel to the fire. We call on Minister Ben-Gvir and the Prime Minister to act as soon as possible to ensure the protection of all citizens, both on the streets and in the home space, to abandon the dangerous reform that will further harm the protection of us all."

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The scene of the shooting in the Western Galilee (Photo: Israel Police Spokesperson's Office, Photo: Israel Police Spokesperson's Office)

Just yesterday, five young men were shot dead in the village of Yafia, near Nazareth, and two others were moderately wounded. The shooting was near a car wash business, and a vehicle caught fire nearby. Five of the wounded were critically wounded and evacuated to the English Hospital in Nazareth, where they were pronounced dead. Among the five murdered are Marjieh, the owner of the car wash business where the shooting took place, Rami Marjieh, Naim's cousin, Louis Abu Rajab, Mohammed Kanana and Ibrahim Shehadeh.

At the same time, two relatives, a three-year-old toddler and a 30-year-old man, were seriously injured in the village of Cana and evacuated to Poriya Hospital near Tiberias.

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