80% of femicides in Palestine involve a killer who is known to the police

Palestinians have staged a protest in the city of Ramle involving the mock funeral of the 11 girls and women killed in the occupied territories in this year alone.

The funeral featured symbolic coffins bearing numbers and banners with slogans condemning violence against women.

The most recent victims, Nariman Maghrabi and her daughter Sondos Shamroukh, were among the Arab community in Israel and were both killed in cold blood in the city of Ramle. The police arrested a suspect and released him later. No progress has been achieved in the investigation into this case so far and the family have publicly stated that they do not trust the police.

As in 80 per cent of such crimes, Ms Maghrabi and Ms Shamroukh’s killer is known to the police, but he has been released back into the community and could potentially commit more crimes. Six weeks before their murder, Shamroukh filed a complaint against a man who issued death threats against her. The police interrogated the man and released him a few hours later. After the double murder, this man was the first suspect, but again he was interrogated for a few hours then released without further follow-up.

Around 100 women have been killed in Palestine and Israel since 2005 but the police have failed to take any serious step to hold the murderers accountable and deter others from committing similar crimes.