Residents of the Bedouin Arab town of Ar’arat an-Naqab (Ar’ara BaNegev) in Israel’s southern Negev region are shocked by the growing level of armed violence among the Bedouin community’s youth.
On Friday of last week, a security camera caught a young man approach the entrance to a local barbershop and open fire with the suspected intent of killing the proprietor. The shooting was reportedly an act of “revenge” by a customer displeased with the haircut he had received three days earlier.
The suspect has not yet been arrested, though the barber told Israeli media that the shooter is a former customer known to him. He recounted to the N12 news portal that three days before the shooting, the suspect had come for a haircut, but left without paying because he was dissatisfied with the result.
When the disgruntled customer returned, as he had threatened to do, he opened fire even though there were several children in the immediate vicinity.
🇮🇱🚨‼️ A barbershop in Arara in the Negev, was targeted by an unidentified shooter while a five-year-old child was watching.
Fortunately, no one is injured in the incident. pic.twitter.com/WEkcLEm8zt
— TabZ (@TabZLIVE) April 26, 2024
“The violence of the young people is shocking, terrible, they have no boundaries and they have a lot of weapons and nobody cares,” the barber told N12. “We live in the Negev, but it’s like Chicago. It’s unimaginable, we live in fear. We demand that the government and the police wake up and deal with this phenomenon.”
