At a time when Israel continues to launch military operations on more than one front, accompanied by large numbers of civilian casualties and violations of international humanitarian law, the phenomenon of violence and crime is also worsening inside Israel, in a scene that reflects a society facing escalating levels of killing. In the most recent of these incidents, Rabbi Amos Guata, the rabbi of Libyan Jews and the head of the “Rabbi Yitzchak Hai Teyeb” religious school in the city of Netanya, was killed after being stabbed inside his room, in one of 3 murders that Israel witnessed within less than an hour.
According to a report by journalists Adar Ghetsis, Or Ravid, and Sharon Knoblech on Israeli Channel 12, the 75-year-old rabbi was found injured inside his room at the religious school, and it is suspected that one of his students stabbed him 4 times.
The rabbi was taken to the hospital in critical condition, before doctors announced his death from his wounds, while the police began a manhunt for the suspect.
The “Shas” movement mourned the late rabbi, describing his death as a “huge shock,” stressing that he was the rabbi of Libyan Jews and the head of the “Rabbi Yitzchak Hai Tayyib” religious school in Netanya.
In parallel, Israel witnessed two other murders during the same period, as a 21-year-old young man was killed by gunfire in a parking lot near a shopping center in Yagour, while another 24-year-old man was killed in a shooting in the city of Shefa Amr.
These successive crimes, most notably the killing of a prominent religious figure such as the rabbi of Libyan Jews, reflect the extent of the security challenges that Israel faces within its society, as murders continue at a high rate, coinciding with the continuation of wars and military operations outside its borders, in a picture that reflects the escalation of violence on more than one level.
