Summertime and the shooting is heavy
Jaffa, Al Ajami neighborhood, my balcony, a nice breeze from the sea, a glass of wine, shabat evening, 23.30, talking about this and that, plans for the coming week, it's quiet, peaceful.
Fireworks from a nearby wedding party, loud music from an occasional car passing by in the street, the barely audible sound of my neighbors' TV sets (football it seems), just another pleasant shabat evening, the mixture of neighborhood sounds make up a familiar background "music" as it were.
A sudden interruption of a single shot (no, that's not fireworks, it sounds different), then another single shot followed by two bursts of machine gun fire, coming from the area of Kedem street (Street nr. 60, for the old timers), then loud screams. It's very close by.
A few minutes later the sirens, lots of them.
We call our friend Abu George, who lives even closer to the direction from where the gunshots sound came. Yes he heard it too, better stay inside. We lock the door. All neighbors are on their balconies or standing at the windows, more sirens and more screaming.
Nobody knows exactly what happened. Someone (perhaps more than one person) opened fire on a car passing through Kedem Street. The very seriously injured driver was taken to Wolfson Hospital by his friends.
We don't know his name yet.
Last week there were shots too, in Mendes France street, the week before that, in Shivtey Israel Street.
Ar we entering a new stage in the Jaffa gang wars? More violent violence?
Once there were beatings, an occasional knife drawn, then handguns came "into fashion", last year Lau missiles and now it appears automatic rifle fire is becoming increasingly popular.
Or are these unrelated events, each with its own dynamic of frustration, anger and escalation?
Jaffa
Violence
Police
Yafo
Fireworks from a nearby wedding party, loud music from an occasional car passing by in the street, the barely audible sound of my neighbors' TV sets (football it seems), just another pleasant shabat evening, the mixture of neighborhood sounds make up a familiar background "music" as it were.
A sudden interruption of a single shot (no, that's not fireworks, it sounds different), then another single shot followed by two bursts of machine gun fire, coming from the area of Kedem street (Street nr. 60, for the old timers), then loud screams. It's very close by.
A few minutes later the sirens, lots of them.
We call our friend Abu George, who lives even closer to the direction from where the gunshots sound came. Yes he heard it too, better stay inside. We lock the door. All neighbors are on their balconies or standing at the windows, more sirens and more screaming.
Nobody knows exactly what happened. Someone (perhaps more than one person) opened fire on a car passing through Kedem Street. The very seriously injured driver was taken to Wolfson Hospital by his friends.
We don't know his name yet.
Last week there were shots too, in Mendes France street, the week before that, in Shivtey Israel Street.
Ar we entering a new stage in the Jaffa gang wars? More violent violence?
Once there were beatings, an occasional knife drawn, then handguns came "into fashion", last year Lau missiles and now it appears automatic rifle fire is becoming increasingly popular.
Or are these unrelated events, each with its own dynamic of frustration, anger and escalation?
Jaffa
Violence
Police
Yafo
Posts
4 comments:
Yudit, do these gang wars ever get reported in the local press? I've been looking at Walla and Nana, but there's nothing.
On ynet there is an occasional reference ( i added the link) and usually the Tel Aviv Police site has a some information as well under "plilim".
Thanks for the links. Interesting that these incidents never make the "top of the news"!
Well, they make "almost" top of the news, when there are dead.
so many people have been killed in Jaffa over the last few years, yet no one seems to caer a great deal.
The young man who was wounded last friday evening apparently belongs, on his mother's side, to the Hamada family.
Almost all of the men in that family have been murdered over the last ten years.
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