A 37-year-old inmate was shot dead in northern Israel on Friday morning while heading to work after leaving prison with permission as part of a rehabilitation program.
Eyal Heib, who was serving an 18-year sentence for a 2014 manslaughter conviction, was killed near the Nahal Tzalmon interchange on Highway 65. He became the 20th person killed in a longstanding feud between two branches of the Hasarma family from the Galilee town of Ba’ana.
Heib was walking to a bus stop to catch a bus to his job at a factory in northern Israel. He was due to return to prison by public transportation at the end of the workday.
As he approached the stop, a vehicle pulled up beside him, and shots were fired from inside. He was critically wounded and pronounced dead at the scene.
Magen David Adom (MDA) received the report at its Jordan district dispatch center at 6:41 a.m. Medical teams found Heib lying unconscious on the sidewalk near the bus stop with penetrating wounds.
“When we arrived, we saw the wounded man, a man about 30 years old, lying on the sidewalk near the bus stop, unconscious and suffering from penetrating wounds to his body," MDA senior medic Fadi Othman said.
"A civilian at the scene had begun CPR under the guidance of MDA’s 101 dispatch center, and we continued those efforts, but his injuries were critical, and ultimately we had no choice but to pronounce him dead.”
Police launched a search for suspects and opened an investigation into the killing. The shooting was criminally motivated.
Killing for NIS 150,000: The slain inmate’s criminal history
Heib was convicted of killing Ali Hasarma in 2014, during the early stages of the feud. According to the facts of the indictment, which he admitted to as part of a plea agreement, Heib ambushed Hasarma in Tal-El Forest and shot him dead at close range.
The indictment stated that Heib acted at the request of Hasarma family members who suspected Ali of involvement in another killing linked to the feud. He agreed to carry out the killing for NIS 150,000 and received NIS 30,000 before his arrest.
During the trial, significant problems with the evidence and agreements between the parties led to the murder charge being reduced to manslaughter. Heib was also convicted of weapons offenses and conspiracy and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
His killing, more than a decade later, raised concerns that the feud could reignite. No further killings had been attributed to it since 2023.
From a teenage dispute to 20 deaths: The Hasarma family feud
The feud began in 2014 after a dispute between teenagers in Ba’ana. What initially appeared to be a minor confrontation quickly escalated as relations between the two branches of the family deteriorated. Exchanges of gunfire targeting homes were followed by killings.
In June 2014, Raad Hasarma, 35, was shot dead in Ba’ana. The violence subsequently spread across northern Israel to locations including Deir al-Asad, Nahariya, Ma’alot, Tal-El and the Tel Dan area. Before Heib’s death, 19 people had been killed in the feud, including some who did not share the family name.
In 2023, three people were killed in quick succession. Muhammad and Kamil Hasarma were shot dead at the entrance to Ba’ana, and Ahmad Titi was killed the following day near Sheva Junction. The violence then appeared to subside, with no further killings linked to the feud for about three years.
Heib’s killing on Friday brought the death toll to 20 and renewed fears that the feud, now more than a decade old, could flare up again.
Two others killed within hours as violence continues
Heib’s killing followed several serious incidents of violence on Thursday night. At about 7 p.m., Yousef Hammad, 22, was shot dead in Tamra, in northern Israel. Another man was moderately wounded.
About three hours later, Mahmoud al-Jamal, a 25-year-old resident of Kalansuwa, was shot dead in Baqa al-Gharbiya. Four others were wounded, three seriously and one moderately. They were taken to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera.
In a separate incident on Dr. Brin Street in Hadera, a 24-year-old man was seriously wounded in a stabbing. Medical teams treated him at the scene before taking him to the hospital with a penetrating wound.
Another person was seriously wounded in a shooting in Nazareth.
In total, three people were killed in shootings in northern Israel, and seven others were wounded in incidents of violence in the north and center of the country. Police are investigating the incidents, which were described as criminally motivated. No connection between them has been reported.