The count · 2026Folio 297
Arab citizens and residents of Israel killed in crime and violence since 1 January 2026.
As of 23 Oct 2026. Count: The Abraham Initiatives, as reported by Bokra on 23 October. 177 citizens and 9 residents. Incidents reported since are listed below.
| Update | 2026 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Jun | 143 | 128 | +12% |
| 20 Jul | 157 | 139 | +13% |
| 25 Sep | 181 | 187 | −3% |
| 13 Oct | 184 | 200 | −8% |
| 23 Oct | 186 | 208 | −10.5% |
Since late September the count has sat below the same date in 2025, a year that ended at 252, the worst on record. The gap widened because last autumn was worse, not because this one has been calm: four people were killed in the first three weeks of October.
One stroke, one life. Each mark stands for one person in the watchdog’s register. Each row is the span between two published counts, dated by the update that closed it, so the marks add up to the count exactly.
A closed gate: five people.
The current month, still open.
Rows from Abraham Initiatives updates reported by the Times of Israel and Bokra. The watchdog does not publish monthly totals; the dates are those of its updates.
Deaths reported after the 23 October update that the watchdog has not counted, or may not count. A death enters the ledger only when it does.
The body of Rabia Obeidi, 38, from Zububa near Jenin, was found in the Lavi forest; three suspects were arrested. As a West Bank resident he is probably outside the count.
Mohammed Ashraf Shweiki, 24, was shot dead and two others were wounded. Whether the watchdog has counted him, as an East Jerusalem resident, is not yet clear.
A man died after police used a Taser on him. His name, age and community were not published; an investigation was opened.
Each story is posted against the count on the day it happened. Where no count was published that day, the No. column stays blank.
Commissioner Danny Levy called the figures the best in three years, but the statement gave no underlying numbers.
The Abraham Initiatives' tally of Arab citizens and residents killed this year rose to 186 after Ibrahim Bashkar died of gunshot wounds.
The Haifa court also ordered the maximum NIS 258,000 compensation to the victim's son.
Police sealed off the area while bulldozers took down the hall, said to be built without a permit.
The arrests come about four months after she was killed in the Jawarish neighbourhood.
Finance Minister Smotrich proposed using money set aside for a coming plan for Arab society to bring forward defence purchases.
Yassin al-Shawi was killed in a suspected family feud in the Negev; Nimer Jabareen, 20, was shot in Umm al-Fahm the next morning.
Accounts range from about 50 homes and 250 people to 80 structures and 400 people, all of the Abu Wadi family.
Or Yarok counts 39% of all road deaths among Arab citizens, about twice their share of the population.
The prime minister posted in Arabic as funding to involve the security service in fighting Arab crime was announced.
The 2026 election · Tuesday 27 October 2026
Hadash, Ta’al and Balad, headed by Yousef Jabareen, with Ahmad Tibi and Ofer Cassif on the slate.
Cleared to run by the Supreme Court on 2 October. Balad’s chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh withdrew a day earlier.
The United Arab List, led by Mansour Abbas; former police official Yoav Segalovitz is No. 2, the first Jewish candidate on its slate.
Cleared on 2 October. Gadi Eisenkot has said Ra’am will not sit in a government he leads.
Turnout decides how many seats the two lists win, and whether the change bloc can reach 61.
Stat-Net forecasts 63% Arab turnout, against about 53% in 2022. In Maariv’s poll 81% of Arab-party supporters said they would surely vote, up from 74% on 8 October.
Bars: projected seats, scale to twelve; the red mark is four seats, the size of the electoral threshold. Final polls: Madad for Channel 13, Midgam for Channel 12 and Kantar for Kan, 23 October, via the Times of Israel. Turnout: Stat-Net via the Times of Israel; Lazar for Maariv via Bokra.
Two readings of the same record. Left: the count at each published update, against the same date in 2025. Right: the day of the year each count reached one hundred.
People whose names were published in news reports, with age and town as reported, and what was reported about how they died. No photographs. A ledger that keeps only totals forgets who was in it.
October · counted 183 to 186
Four killings entered in the first three weeks of the month.
Bokra, 10–23 Oct 2026; Times of Israel.
25 September · counted 181 and 182
A woman found beaten in her building in Haifa; her husband was arrested. That evening a young man from Tamra died after a shooting in Kabul.
Bokra, 25 Sep 2026.
Police gunfire · 9 this year
Alaa Mahameed was unarmed, Haaretz reported, citing the police investigations department; police say he lunged at an officer after a chase on Route 65.
Times of Israel, 18 Sep 2026; Bokra, 25 Sep 2026.
Life · Sakhnin · 23 Oct
103 of 125 graduates of al-Bashaer school earned the distinguished certificate, ministry data show.
Life · Umm al-Fahm · 14 Oct
Artist Said Abu Shakra founded the Umm al-Fahm Art Gallery thirty years ago with his brother Farid.
Life · Tel Aviv / Sakhnin · 10 Oct
League chief Erez Halfon called it another red line crossed; the club asked police for protection at away games.
Life · Nazareth · 10 Oct
Six evenings of Arab classical, tarab, orchestral and contemporary music at the Nazareth cultural palace.
Protest · Arraba, 3 October
On 3 October Arab towns marked the anniversary of October 2000, when thirteen men were killed by police, twelve of them Arab citizens. The High Follow-Up Committee led a route through the graves in Jatt, Umm al-Fahm, Muawiya, Nazareth, Kafr Kanna, Kafr Manda and Sakhnin.
The march left Arraba’s old mosque on Daher al-Omar Street at four in the afternoon and ended at the memorial in the school square. Earlier this year the street kept its own count: in January a shopkeepers’ strike in Sakhnin against protection rackets grew into a march of tens of thousands in Tel Aviv.
Bokra, 3 October 2026; Times of Israel, 5 February 2026.
Background · Government
In July the cabinet moved about NIS 497 million from the five-year plan for Arab society to the Shin Bet and police. In October the prime minister announced NIS 1 billion more.
Bokra; Times of Israel, 8 Oct 2026.
The years before
Killings in Arab society in 2023, 2024 and 2025. 2023 more than doubled the year before; 2025 was the deadliest year on record.
Abraham Initiatives figures via the Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post.
Method
We keep the Abraham Initiatives’ tally. Police figures count murder cases, not people, and other monitors count differently. When they disagree we name the source; we never average.
Counts change after deaths in hospital: we correct the ledger, never overwrite it.