Prisoner Shot Dead at Bus Stop in Northern Israel

Eyal Haib, a 37-year-old prisoner from Tuba Zangaria serving time for manslaughter and murder, was shot and killed Friday morning at a bus stop on Highway 65 near the Tsalmon interchange in the Lower Galilee. Haib had been granted permission to leave prison to go to his approved work at a factory in the north. He was walking to the bus stop when he was shot. Bystanders attempted to administer CPR, but Haib's injuries were too severe, and MDA (Magen David Adom) paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. Police have opened an investigation.

This incident follows a wave of violence in northern and central Israel on Thursday. Within less than an hour, two people were killed and six injured in shootings and stabbings. Ahmed Jamal, 25, from Kafr Qasim, was shot dead in Baqa al-Gharbiyya, and Yusef Hamad, 22, was killed in Tamra. The Abraham Initiatives organization reported that these killings bring the total number of Arab victims of crime and violence in 2026 to 197, with 168 shot and 9 stabbed.

Paramedics described the scene of Haib's death as difficult, noting penetrating wounds. The violence on Thursday also included multiple casualties in Baqa al-Gharbiyya, where three people were evacuated to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera with serious injuries, and one to Laniado Hospital in Netanya with moderate injuries. Earlier, a 24-year-old man was seriously injured in a stabbing in Hadera, and a 48-year-old man with a penetrating wound was evacuated in serious condition from an incident in Qalansawe.