A 3-year-old was killed in northern Israel on Thursday, with sources saying the toddler was struck in the neck by a bullet.
The boy was found unconscious in a playground in the Bedouin town of Bir al-Maksur near Nazareth. Medics said he was not breathing and had no pulse. He was transported to a hospital as medics attempted to resuscitate him. The police are checking whether the boy had been hit by a stray bullet and said it was fired from a construction site some 300 meters (nearly 1,000 feet) away from the playground.
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Husam Kamel, a witness, said the playground was new. “There is a suspicion that the shooting was aimed at one of the vehicles of one of the workers who previously worked in the area of the playground, and one of the bullets apparently struck the toddler,” he said. “People in the town cannot believe what happened, we are not used to situations like this. The residents are in a panic, and there is a lot of anger about what is happening.”
Amid a rise in crime related to illegal weapons possession, last month the Knesset passed an emergency order setting a mandatory minimum sentence for possessing, carrying, buying or selling a weapon illegally.
With violent crime in Israel’s Arab community steadily rising in recent years, and amid criticism that the police are not doing enough to tackle the problem, law enforcement agencies have launched a campaign targeting 370 figures in the Arab community who are considered sources of criminal activity.
