The Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency and the Israel Police announced on Thursday the arrest of three Israeli Arab suspects for allegedly conducting a drive-by shooting last month on an Israeli citizen at the entrance to the village of Zalafa, in the Wadi Ara region of northern Israel.
The suspects, all residents of Zalafa, allegedly acted on nationalistic motives, according to security services.
During the attack, an Israeli citizen who was at the entrance to the village on May 13 was able to take cover and escape the bullets, avoiding injury. The incident occurred during a wave of nationwide disturbances.
“Three suspects planned and conducted the shooting attack while driving in a vehicle without a license plate,” said the Shin Bet. “They also took part in violent disturbances in other locations during May.”
The men were charged on Thursday at the Haifa District Court, and the state seized the vehicle used in the shooting.
Separately, the Shin Bet and police said on Thursday that two Israeli-Arab men had been arrested on suspicion of lynching a Jewish citizen in Kafr Qara, southeast of Haifa, due to nationalistic motives on May 11. The Israeli man sustained injuries, and his car was heavily damaged in the attack.
One of the suspects in that incident has also been linked to an assault on a Jewish family that accidentally entered Kafr Qara on May 12. Their vehicle was pelted with rocks, and rioters attempted to open the car doors and assault the passengers. Both men were charged on Thursday.
In addition, the Shin Bet and Israel Police said they had arrested seven Israeli Jewish residents of Herzliya on suspicion of assaulting an Israeli-Arab resident of Taibe near the Sidna Ali Mosque in Herzliya on May 12. The assault victim was moderately injured by masked men in the attack, who used pepper spray on his face and stabbed him with a sharp object.
