Police shot and killed a man in his home Saturday night in Tarabin al-Sana, during a raid that has been ongoing for days in the Bedouin town.
The police said that 36-year-old Muhammad Hussein Tarabin was a suspect in the torching of cars in nearby Jewish towns and endangered forces during their overnight operation. His family denied both allegations and insisted he had been killed in cold blood.
The Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) launched a probe into the incident, the State Attorney’s Office agency told The Times of Israel.
The officer suspected in the shooting was interrogated on suspicion of shooting unlawfully and released to five-day house arrest. He was barred from entering police stations for a week, the agency said.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police, lauded the shooting. “Those who endanger our police and fighters must be neutralized,” he said, congratulating the forces responsible.
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Tarabin was killed during an operation by a “special unit” in the police alongside the Border Police’s fledgling National Guard force, which was founded during Ben Gvir’s tenure.
Officers in Border Police’s National Guard force patrol the southern Bedouin town of Tarabin al-Sana during days-long raid on December 31, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
The special unit consisted of masked officers in military fatigues, who entered the town at around midnight, according to the cousin of the deceased, Yusuf al-Awadra.
Though Awadra was not at the scene, he spoke to the deceased’s older brother, Ahmad Tarabin, whose home — adjacent to his brother’s — was also raided by around 30 members of law enforcement.
Awadra told The Times of Israel that the fighters entered Ahmad’s home first, put a sack over his head, handcuffed him and took him outside. Officers then knocked on his younger brother’s door and entered the house.
Unable to see, Ahmad heard his younger brother’s wife screaming from inside the house, then the police forces shouting that someone had been injured.
The eldest son of the slain man, Hussein, said in a video statement that his father had gone to open the door and hadn’t said a word to police before one of the officers shot him in the chest.
“I heard someone knock on the door, my dad opened the door, he didn’t talk to them or anything, and they shot him in the chest,” the young boy said. According to him, officers then continued to search the house rather than calling for medical assistance.
The deceased was taken away from the scene in a police car, rather than an ambulance. The body is still held by police, according to the family.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaks to reporters as he tours the Bedouin town of Tarabin al-Sana in southern Israel on December 31, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Police said in a statement: “One of the suspects endangered the force that operated in Tarabin [al-Sana] and was shot. His condition is defined as critical.”
Police have not responded to a request for comment on the family’s version of events.
The officer suspected in the fatal shooting said during his interrogation that he and other officers “understood that he meant to attack us with a cold [non-firearm] weapon” which led him to open fire, i24 News reported.
Contrary to the family’s claim, the officer alleged that he was accompanied by only two other officers to the house, and that Tarabin was alone at the time he he was shot.
Bedouin leadership in the town placed blame on Ben Gvir for the shooting.
An umbrella group comprising Bedouin mayors, Knesset lawmakers and civil society groups assigned to the far-right minister “direct responsibility for the killing of an Israeli citizen, a resident of Tarabin [al-Sana].”
“The policy of incitement, being quick on the trigger, and the use of forces not subordinate to the police led to an event that ended in murder,” said the group in a statement.
The National Guard, which is part of the Border Police gendarmerie force rather than standard police, has been overseeing a raid on Tarabin al-Sana that began last Monday.
Ben Gvir has toured the town numerous times since then, incensing residents.
Ra’am MK Waleed Alhawashleh has accused the minister of spearheading a “campaign of incitement” against Bedouin citizens of Israel and seeking to damage relations between Arabs and Jews in the Negev.
Police cordoned off Tarabin al-Sana with cinderblocks week and began requiring those who exit and enter the village to show identity cards to security forces in routine checks.
National Guard fighters and other Border Police forces stand at the entrance to the Bedouin town of Tarabin al-Sana, which has been closed off with cinderblocks, on December 31, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Police claimed the slain man was a suspect in a string of car arson incidents in nearby Jewish locales, which police describe as “price tag” attacks in revenge for operations in the Bedouin town.
It is not immediately clear whether police suspected Tarabin of taking part in the burning of cars in Givot Bar and Mishmar Hanegev two weeks ago, or a more recent arson attack in a gas station parking lot near Lehavim.
Police believe both attacks were carried out by the same gang, but Lehavim’s residents have reportedly cast doubt on suspicions that the gas station incident was nationalistically motivated.
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