Israeli security forces have arrested four Arab Israelis in Ramallah suspected of fatally shooting a Jewish security guard in the central city of Lod on Friday, police announced on Tuesday evening.
The suspects were detained in a joint operation by the Border Police’s Yamam counter-terrorism unit, the Israel Police’s Central District, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Defense Forces.
היחידה המרכזית של מחוז מרכז והימ"מ, ביחד עם צה"ל ובהכוונת שב"כ, עצרו ברמאללה ארבעה תושבי לוד החשודים ברצח המאבטח פבל רוזוב ז"ל בסוף השבוע בלוד
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) July 1, 2025
בפעילות משותפת של לוחמי הימ"מ, שוטרי ימ"ר מרכז, כוחות שב"כ וצה"ל נעצרו הלילה ברמאללה ארבעה אזרחים ישראלים תושבי לוד החשודים ברצח המאבטח… pic.twitter.com/PmWvL6IuDK
Pavel Rozov, 54, was reportedly shot and killed on his way to work at the Lod police station on Friday evening.
Police had previously announced the arrest of five members of the Abu Ghanem family in connection with the murder, including two women who allegedly assisted the gunmen. Those suspects were reportedly apprehended while attempting to flee to northern Israel.
A police source told Channel 12 News on Sunday that Rozov, who was armed and wearing a helmet, had taken a shortcut through a crime-ridden neighborhood in Lod.
“They saw a suspicious man with a gun and a helmet and suspected he was a hitman,” said a police source.
In May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would seek to designate Arab criminal organizations as terror groups.
“The murderous criminal organizations pose an existential threat to the State of Israel,” Netanyahu reportedly told the Ministerial Subcommittee on Advancing the Fight against Crime in the Arab Sector.
Netanyahu was said to have asked Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and the head of the government’s task force on Arab crime to convene a discussion on the matter.
Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster, in a separate report in May, cited a senior Israel Security Agency official as warning the government that Arab-sector crime “has reached the level of a security threat.”
The phenomenon “endangers the democratic system and it requires greater involvement from the Shin Bet,” the official said, adding that a “Guardian of the Walls II” counter-terror operation would endanger the state’s security.
