2025 was the deadliest year ever for Arab society in Israel, the Abraham Initiatives reported Sunday.
The Abraham Initiatives is a nonprofit organization based in Lod, New York City, and London. It promotes equal rights and citizenship for Israel’s Jewish and Arab residents, according to its website.
The annual report indicated that violence has become an ongoing scourge for Arab Israelis.
Murders are occurring at a high frequency, causing people to lack a basic sense of security and feel abandonment over the absence of an effective state response, the report said.
In 2025, 252 Arab Israelis were killed in 218 incidents of violence and crime, compared with 230 murders in 2024, it said.
Troubling trends of violence
Some 88% of the victims were shot to death, which the NGO attributed to the lethality of firearms and their intolerable availability. More than 72% of those murdered were between the ages of 18 and 40, and more than half of them were 18-30.
There was a trend in which multiple victims from the same family were involved in single incidents, the report said.
Record number of Arab women killed in 2025, report says
In addition, there was a significant rise in fatalities among Arab women, with 23 reported murders, the highest number ever. Some of them were victims of domestic violence, while others were targets of criminal organizations or revenge killings.
In 2025, 12 Arab Israelis were killed during police operations, more than in 2024, the report said. That statistic warranted an investigation to determine if it reflects a troubling pattern of excessive use of force against Arab citizens, it added.
Lod and Nazareth had the most Arab Israeli victims for the third consecutive year. Eleven people were murdered in Rahat in 2025.
The data presented could not convey the personal pain behind the numbers, the Abraham Initiatives said.
“These families, who have lost their loved ones, continue to struggle with their grief,” the report said. “In addition to the deep emotional pain caused by their loss, they often face a lack of support and response from the authorities. Numerical data alone cannot capture the extent of their hardship.”