A young Arab man from a small town in northern Israel was arrested on Tuesday after he shot and critically wounded his 19-year-old sister to "preserve family honor."

According to the 24-year-old attacker's own testimony, proudly given to police and rescue personnel that he himself called, he shot his sister twice in the head and then repeatedly kicked all parts of her body. Believing the girl to be dead, the young man went to report the deed to his family, which warmly congratulated him for preserving their honor in the context of Islamic law.

Meanwhile, the girl was rushed to an area hospital where she underwent emergency surgery. She remains in unstable and serious condition.

The girl's crime, according to her brother and would-be killer, was that she had "befriended" other men following her divorce.

While honor killings among Israeli Arab Muslims are not so frequent, they are a regular occurrence across the rest of the Muslim world.