Crime wave on Israel’s streets
Since last week, Israel has been shocked by the murder of a 21-year-old man in Petah Tikva by a group of teenagers, with many Israelis fearing the spread of violence on their streets.
The incident, which took place in central Israel on Tuesday night during Independence Day celebrations, saw pizzeria worker Yemanu Binyamin Zelka murdered by several teenagers, who stabbed him to death after he asked them to stop using party foam spray inside the premises.
Days later, the police opened an investigation, and eight minors were arrested and taken into questioning.
“There was Covid, then war, and then another war. The children lacked stable frameworks, and in the end, it erupts,” Police Commissioner Danny Levy said to Zelka’s family on Sunday, Walla reported.
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Levy’s remarks drew angry responses from the victim’s family, who demanded the offenders be put on trial, which is indicative of public discontent about how police have handled the case.
Zelka was of Ethiopian descent, and politicians and activists have accused the police of not handling his case properly due to institutional bias against Ethiopian Israelis.
“It is unbelievable that dozens of youths carried out a lynching and murdered Binyamin Yimenu Zelka,” Avi Yalew, an Israeli-Ethiopian activist said on X on Sunday, adding that “no one tried to help. Hundreds of people were present, and not a single person stepped in. This horrifying case must shake the country.”
“Why did it take the Israel police so long to open an investigation and make arrests, when the entire incident was filmed?” Yalew asked.
Ayman Odeh, leader of the left-wing Hadash party, said on Sunday that “this is the year with the highest number of murder victims, and also the highest murder rate ever recorded”.
Odeh said that “a criminal government that abandons its citizens, and a failing police force that cannot deal with actual crime… are our real problem”.
According to Haaretz, 107 people have been murdered since the start of the year, indicating the steep rise in violent deaths in Israel since Itamar Ben Gvir took office as Israel’s national security minister. An overwhelmingly majority of the victims are Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Spike in suicide among troops and police officers
Since the start of 2026, at least 12 soldiers and police officers on active service have killed themselves, Haaretz reported on Sunday.
The report said that three more reservists who were not on active duty also killed themselves this year, marking a further increase in death by suicide of Israeli security personnel since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began on October 2023.
Mental health experts told Haaretz that the high number of suicides may be related to decreasing funds for services the army provides for soldiers who suffer from mental health issues.
“It’s far from enough,” a mental health army officer told Haaretz, regarding the army’s actions to deal with the crisis, adding that it’s “more like putting a Band-Aid on a bleeding main artery”.
According to the report, the Israeli army keeps enlisting people who suffer from mental health issues without giving them sufficient support.
A former army mental health officer said that at least some of the recent deaths “could have been saved if commanders would’ve paid attention to early warning signs”.
“The system must improve,” the officer told Haaretz. “This is no longer just a warning – it is a real alarm.”
According to official army data, since the 7 October Hamas-led attack, 60 soldiers died from suicide while on active duty, including 22 last year, which marks the highest number of deaths by suicide in 15 years.
However, according to the report, the official data doesn’t include soldiers who killed themselves while not on active duty, indicating the number of deaths is even higher.
This comes amid a mental health crisis that has gripped Israel since October 2023.
According to a Haaretz report, seven percent of Israel’s population is suffering from OCD (obsessive–compulsive disorder), compared to an average of two percent worldwide.
The report also stated there is a rise in depression, anxiety and addiction in Israeli society, amounting to economic damage worth up to a 100 billion shekels per year.
Against the grain
A Haaretz investigation revealed on Sunday that Israel has been buying stolen Ukrainian wheat from Russia since 2023.
According to the report, a year after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Israel started to receive stolen Ukrainian wheat that was shipped to Israel via Russian boats.
Haaretz said that since 2023, more than 30 shipments of stolen wheat originating in Ukraine were delivered to Israel by Russian wheat merchants, in what it described as “funding President Vladimir Putin’s war machine”.
According to the report, at least five wheat boats have arrived in Israel since the beginning of this year.
The Russian boats, which were carrying stolen wheat to Israel, are trying to conceal their identity and the origin of their cargo.
The report said that “the vessels in question did not load their cargo at Russian ports, but rather through a method in which ships come alongside one another in the Black Sea”, where the cargo is transferred between the vessels.
In two cases, Haaretz managed to track Russian boats who loaded stolen grain in Ukraine and then delivered it directly to Israel.
An Israeli grain merchant told Haaretz that “the Russian suppliers claim the wheat originates in Siberia and is shipped west by rail”, adding that only after the Ukrainian embassy warned them, “did we understand the true origin of the wheat”.
Israel’s foreign ministry refused to comment on the issue, according to Haaretz.
In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org