Businessman Shot 13 Times After Lured Out for Meeting

Ra'ed Haj Yahya, a businessman from Tayibe, was shot and killed Thursday near his home after allegedly being lured outside under the pretense of a meeting. According to sources familiar with the details, the assailants called Haj Yahya, asked him to meet them, and then opened fire at close range as he entered his vehicle. Thirteen bullets were fired, and his car was riddled with them. MDA paramedics who arrived at the scene found him unconscious in the car, with no pulse or breathing, and began resuscitation efforts before transporting him to the hospital in critical condition. He was pronounced dead shortly after.

Police have opened an investigation into the murder. A source close to Haj Yahya told Walla that the motive appears to be a financial dispute. "They had a financial dispute with him. Yahya was a human resources manager, and with one decision, they decided to take him down," the source said, questioning the logic of killing someone over money. The source also described the widespread availability of weapons in Arab communities and the fear that prevents residents from reporting them, stating, "We have a severe problem in the Arab sector. A person wants to commit murder, they get a gun within five minutes. What will the Shin Bet do after someone has already been murdered? The weapons need to be eliminated, roadblocks need to be set up. Young people possess weapons on par with the army."

The source recounted an instance where he found a weapon at his workplace but feared reporting it, saying, "I put it back and pretended I hadn't seen it. Unfortunately, this won't end, there's no end to the murders." He added that Haj Yahya was killed while his family, including young children, were inside their home.

The murder has intensified feelings of fear in Tayibe amid a continuing wave of violence in the Arab community, where 170 people have been killed since the beginning of the year. A relative of Haj Yahya expressed the pervasive fear among residents, stating, "We are tired of murders. We are fed up with living with a knife to our throats every time. There isn't anyone, from the youngest to the oldest, who doesn't live in the shadow of fear in Arab society." He argued that isolated actions against illegal weapons are insufficient, calling for a house-to-house search to collect firearms. "For once and for all, for the safety of all of us and our children, they need to do it right. They need to go house to house and collect all the firearms here." He lamented that Haj Yahya's death is painful but not the end, and that this reality continues as long as weapons are freely available.