Grenade Attack Kills Woman in Kafr Manda; Golan Blames Netanyahu
(MENAFN) Opposition leader Yair Golan on Saturday blamed caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for abandoning Israel’s Arab citizens to organized crime, hours after a grenade attack in the north killed a woman and wounded three other people.
Golan, who heads The Democrats party, posted his criticism on X.
“A bomb explodes in broad daylight in the village of Kafr Manda. People killed and many injured. This is what the Netanyahu government’s policy of neglect looks like,” he wrote.
He later said criminal groups had gained strength under Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and now threatened the whole country.
“Netanyahu neglected the lives of Arab citizens in Israel. When he appointed Itamar Ben-Gvir as national security minister, he handed them over to criminal organizations,” Golan said.
“We will form a government of change that takes responsibility, fights criminal organizations and restores personal security to all Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs,” he said.
ATTACK DETAILS
Lina Qassem Zidan, 51, was shopping at a sweets shop in a crowded commercial district of Kafr Manda, an Arab town in the Galilee, when a grenade was hurled at the store, Israeli media reported. Medics rushed her to Rambam Hospital in Haifa in critical condition, where she later died.
A man and a woman in their 50s suffered moderate injuries. Another man was lightly wounded.
An initial assessment, according to Israeli media, indicated the assailants were hunting for a particular individual and targeted a shop owned by his relative after failing to locate him.
VIOLENCE IN ARAB COMMUNITIES
Zidan’s killing pushed the reported homicide toll in Israel’s Arab communities to 200 since January, including 20 women, Israeli media said. Kafr Manda residents said homes and businesses had come under repeated shooting and grenade attacks over the past month, with no arrests announced.
POLITICAL BACKDROP
On Friday, Gadi Eisenkot, who has been tasked with forming Israel’s next government, accused Netanyahu of stoking a “racist and hostile” campaign to delegitimize Arab citizens, who account for more than one-fifth of the population.
President Isaac Herzog handed the mandate to Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, on Nov. 8, following the Oct. 27 parliamentary elections. Lawmakers holding 67 seats in the 120-member Knesset recommended Eisenkot. Another 46 backed Netanyahu, and seven United Torah Judaism lawmakers endorsed neither.
Eisenkot has 28 days to assemble a government, with a possible 14-day extension.
Golan, who heads The Democrats party, posted his criticism on X.
“A bomb explodes in broad daylight in the village of Kafr Manda. People killed and many injured. This is what the Netanyahu government’s policy of neglect looks like,” he wrote.
He later said criminal groups had gained strength under Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and now threatened the whole country.
“Netanyahu neglected the lives of Arab citizens in Israel. When he appointed Itamar Ben-Gvir as national security minister, he handed them over to criminal organizations,” Golan said.
“We will form a government of change that takes responsibility, fights criminal organizations and restores personal security to all Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs,” he said.
ATTACK DETAILS
Lina Qassem Zidan, 51, was shopping at a sweets shop in a crowded commercial district of Kafr Manda, an Arab town in the Galilee, when a grenade was hurled at the store, Israeli media reported. Medics rushed her to Rambam Hospital in Haifa in critical condition, where she later died.
A man and a woman in their 50s suffered moderate injuries. Another man was lightly wounded.
An initial assessment, according to Israeli media, indicated the assailants were hunting for a particular individual and targeted a shop owned by his relative after failing to locate him.
VIOLENCE IN ARAB COMMUNITIES
Zidan’s killing pushed the reported homicide toll in Israel’s Arab communities to 200 since January, including 20 women, Israeli media said. Kafr Manda residents said homes and businesses had come under repeated shooting and grenade attacks over the past month, with no arrests announced.
POLITICAL BACKDROP
On Friday, Gadi Eisenkot, who has been tasked with forming Israel’s next government, accused Netanyahu of stoking a “racist and hostile” campaign to delegitimize Arab citizens, who account for more than one-fifth of the population.
President Isaac Herzog handed the mandate to Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, on Nov. 8, following the Oct. 27 parliamentary elections. Lawmakers holding 67 seats in the 120-member Knesset recommended Eisenkot. Another 46 backed Netanyahu, and seven United Torah Judaism lawmakers endorsed neither.
Eisenkot has 28 days to assemble a government, with a possible 14-day extension.
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