Palestinian family of five shot dead in Israel as murder wave persists

Five members of a Palestinian family were shot dead in their home in Israel, police said on Wednesday, in the latest in a wave of crime-related killings in the country's Palestinian communities that has reached a new peak this year.

The shooting of the five, including a woman and two teenagers, in the Bedouin town of Basmat Tab'un followed a separate incident in which a 50-year-old man was killed earlier on Wednesday.

More than 180 Palestinian citizens in Israel have been killed in crime-related violence since January - a seven-year high - in a spate of killings that have continued unchecked, drawing accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's religious-nationalist government was ignoring the bloodshed.

"Israel has the abilities, the Israeli government understands what needs to be done, everybody understands what needs to be done, there simply is no will and no leadership," said Mansour Abbas, leader of one of the parties that represent Israel's Palestinian minority.

Palestinian mayors have accused the government and police of deliberately neglecting their communities and of enabling criminals to act with impunity. They have refused to work with the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has past convictions of support for terrorism and anti-Arab incitement, and have demanded that Netanyahu intervene instead.

With Israel facing its worst political crisis in decades, over Netanyahu's drive to push through a divisive overhaul of the judiciary, Palestinian citizens say the collapse of personal safety in their communities must receive more government attention.

Ben-Gvir, who did not immediately comment on Wednesday's incident, has rejected accusations of inaction. He has said fighting crime is high on his agenda and that police have stepped up crime-busting activity, including the seizure of weapons and funds from criminal groups.

"As police, we will do everything to get to the killers," police spokesman Eli Levi told reporters at the scene of Wednesday's crime.

Most of Israel's Arab citizens are descendants of Palestinians who survived ethnic cleansing and mass displacement by Zionist militias which accompanied the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948. They make up about a fifth of Israel's population.

They have for decades faced high poverty rates, poorly funded schools, and overcrowded towns lacking services, and say they are treated as second-class citizens compared with other Israeli citizens.

(Reuters)