Police arrested 30 people in Nazareth in two overnight operations early Thursday and early Friday on suspicion of involvement in gang violence, as a 30-year-old man was shot and killed in the Arab Israeli city, becoming the fourth homicide victim there in less than 24 hours.
In a statement, police said dozens of officers stormed several compounds belonging to gangs, and “in several cases” arrested suspects who tried to escape, chasing them down on foot before taking them into custody.
The officers seized “a large number of weapons,” police said in a statement, including a hand grenade, a handgun and ammunition, “and thus prevented their use in the [gangland] conflict.”
“The Israel Police has been operating intensely in Nazareth over the last year, and has managed to put heads of the Bakri crime organization in prison,” the statement continued.
“The internal struggle of local criminal gangs will be answered with uncompromising strength and determination, in order to protect citizens’ security and wellbeing,” the police said.
