A new report prepared ahead of Monday morning’s meeting of the Knesset State Control Committee, chaired by MK Alon Schuster of the National Unity Party, says violence and organized crime in Arab society remain a major national crisis. The committee will examine crime and violence in Arab communities, using data assembled from several sources including the Israel Police and the Gertner Institute, and published by Walla.
The report says hospitalizations for criminal violence in Israel have risen sharply over the past decade, with the entire increase coming from Arab victims, while the number of Jewish victims stayed roughly unchanged. In 2025, 1,874 people were hospitalized or died in Israel from criminal violence. Of them, 753, or 40%, were shot, 434, or 23%, were stabbed, and 687, or 37%, suffered other forms of violence. About two-thirds of all victims were Arabs, more than three times their share of the population, and 90% of gunshot victims were Arabs.
The report also shows a steady rise between 2015 and 2024 in the number of Arab victims hospitalized or pronounced dead in hospitals after violent attacks, up by a factor of 1.85. In 2024, that figure was 1,875, compared with 1,435 in 2015, a 31% increase. Over the same period, the number of hospitalizations and deaths from gunfire rose from 202 to 755, a 3.7-fold jump, and since 2023, most registered violent-crime victims were injured by gunfire.
The figures do not include people wounded but never taken to hospital, those discharged without admission, or those who died before reaching hospital, so the report says they still only indicate the scale of the problem. Since the start of 2021, 911 people have been murdered in Israel, including 172 in 2021, 148 in 2022, 300 in 2023, 282 in 2024 and 308 in 2025. As of yesterday, 157 people had been murdered this year, 130 of them Arabs. Schuster said the numbers show “a continuing failure of the state to protect its citizens” and called the situation a national emergency. He said the committee will also review government Decision 549, the plan to fight crime and violence in Arab society, including how much of the funding was spent and whether the government has clear goals and a budget to continue it.
