One person was killed after a car exploded in Kiryat Haim, northern Israel, on Tuesday, Magen David Adom and Israel Police said.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the victim was a 50-year-old senior figure of the Hariri crime organization, who was married, with children, and had been living in the area for years.
He had managed to escape imprisonment despite being arrested several times, with his release happening only days after the arrests.
There are fears that the murder will reignite a long-standing conflict between the Hariri crime organization and other criminal groups.
"This will lead to a chain of assassinations that who knows how and when it will end," a source familiar with the senior criminals in the north told Walla.
"We received a report of a car that exploded. When we arrived at the scene of the explosion, we saw commotion and a burned vehicle with serious injuries, emitting a lot of smoke," said MDA paramedic Nitzan Ben Abu.
"At the end of the firefighters' rescue operations, a man was rescued who had no signs of life and suffered from very severe multi-systemic injuries. Unfortunately, we had to pronounce him dead at the scene," he added.
Firefighters and police sappers operated at the scene to control the fire and guarantee that no further explosions were triggered by the incident.
Police call for urgent meeting after five murders in a day
Earlier on Tuesday, Israel Police Commissioner Insp.-Gen. Daniel Levi announced that he will convene a special meeting on Monday evening with the police’s senior command staff to assess the continued fight against criminal organizations and the wave of violence in Arab society.
The meeting comes after five people were murdered in four separate incidents in Taiba, Kalansuwa, Jaffa, and Holon within less than 12 hours. The incidents are suspected of being connected to disputes between criminal organizations and families.
In total, 145 people have been killed in criminal clashes within the Arab society in 2026, according to a report by the Abraham Initiatives.
This represents a growth of 12% compared to 2025, while Northern Israel remains the district with the most amount of victims, with 58 murders.
Additionally, the report warned that the violent incidents did not only happen in the street, but were also reported in hospitals where victims of violence were being treated.
"The data for the first half of the year proves once again that the state continues to fail in dealing with crime in Arab society. But this year we seek to broaden our perspective: violence does not only take a toll on the victims and their families," the report said.
"It harms all citizens of Israel, disrupting the work of hospitals, burdening the health system, wearing down medical teams and delaying treatment for other patients," it added.
Hodaya Ran and Efrat Forsher contributed to this report.