Nabil Hayek recovering at Hadassah Ain Karem Hospital with his father, Allam Hayek, and mother, Hanan Hayek, in Jerusalem. Nabil was one of four people injured in a shooting at a butcher’s shop in an Arab town in northern Israel in late July. He once had a promising future on the football field. — ©2023 The New York Times Company
WHEN the shots rang out, the young football player was in line at a butcher’s shop in an Arab town in northern Israel. Struck in his leg, he tried to flee, he said. But a black-clad masked gunman chased him, firing into his legs at point-blank range, smashing bones, crushing muscle and severing blood vessels.
A talented midfielder, Nabil Hayek, 19, was one of four people injured in the assault in late July, victims of a surge of gun violence within Israel’s Arab communities, much of it linked to loan-sharking and protection rackets run by Arab crime organisations.
