"If there is a hell - we are living in it": The blood feud with the Jarushi family that led to 10 murders in one family

More than ten murdered family members, abandoned houses, children who cannot study or work, and a constant fear that the next phone call will announce another victim: this is what the lives of the Musrati family from Lod have looked like in recent years, at the heart of one of the most difficult blood feuds in Arab society with the Jarushi family - in which innocent people were often harmed, including women and children, whose only sin was being born into one of the families. After a long period in which they avoided speaking publicly, Ismail Musrati, who lost his two sons Ali and Samer and other relatives in the conflict, decided to break his silence.

"If there is a hell here in this world, it is us," he told Ynet. "We are living in hell. To lose two children a month and a half apart, child after child - I don't even know how to describe this feeling. It hurts so much that it's impossible to describe in words."

The conflict involving the family members has been going on for years and has claimed victims on both sides. Over the years, some of the murders were linked to confrontations of the Musrati family with other families and criminal elements in the Lod and Ramle area, as part of the conflict with the Jarushi family members. According to Musrati, the beginning of the cycle of revenge was a suspicion that his son was involved in a murder or assisted in its execution.

"It started with a suspicion as if my son helped in some murder," he said. "It developed, and today we have reached a situation where we have lost more than ten people from the family. Women, a girl, elderly people, young people. I lost two sons, two nephews, my sister, my wife's sister, and other relatives."

The girl was shot in her sleep. The list of victims in the family is long. In August 2021, Hussam Musrati (23) was murdered in a shooting in Lod. In October 2022, Sabri Musrati (30) was murdered. In June 2024, Ali Musrati (26) was shot to death inside a car in Haifa, and about a month and a half later his brother Samer Musrati (32) was murdered in the Sarona complex area in Tel Aviv. One of the most shocking murder cases occurred in October 2024 in Kafr Qasim. Siham Musrati, a 10-year-old girl, was shot to death while sleeping in a bed at her aunt's house. According to the suspicion, the assassins arrived at the scene posing as police officers. In that same incident, her aunt, May Issa (29), was also murdered, and Siham's brother, Adi, was critically wounded. Shortly after, in November, their relative Kamel Musrati (34) was also murdered in Lod. Also, Odai Musrati (28) was murdered in December 2025. In addition, the family mentions a woman in her 50s as another victim, as well as other victims. The family members claim that even after the murders and the warnings they received about the danger to their lives, they did not receive sufficient protection. Today Ismail, his wife, and some of his children are staying outside of Israel.

"Today I don't even live in the country," he said. "I feel threatened, my wife is threatened, my children are threatened. There is no one to protect us. The police can come and tell you 'your life is in danger'. Okay, my life is in danger - if you know who is endangering my life, what have you done about it? Nothing. You only warned me."

According to him, the family members have reached a situation where they count the days when none of them were harmed. "We don't know what to do anymore. You look for a way out and there is none. You have to live day by day and say: okay, another day passed in peace. That's all. The children cannot go out to work, cannot study. Their future is over." Musrati places the responsibility for the situation on the law enforcement authorities: "If the police cannot protect us as citizens, and on the other hand also does not allow me to protect myself, then what can I do? I am constantly looking for answers and I have none. I have no solution."

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"I begged: just help me bury the child"

One of the most difficult parts of his testimony concerns not only the murders themselves, but what happened after them. According to him, the fear of the conflict was so great that people in the family's environment were afraid to help them even with funerals. Musrati said that after the murder of his first son Ali, he was outside of Israel but managed to return to bring him to burial.

"I didn't find a friend, a clergyman, a neighbor, an acquaintance - no one called me to ask if I needed help," he said. "I found myself alone dealing with this thing. I had to take the body to another city, and there they prepared him for burial for a fee. I'm not talking about the money - but about the fact that I reached such a situation. It's something incomprehensible."

When his son Samer was murdered, he could no longer reach Israel. "I couldn't get a flight. I called people and begged: help me bury the child. I didn't ask them to come fight with me, I didn't ask them to join the conflict. I only asked them to help me bury my son with dignity. Even that I didn't find."

According to him, the reason was threats directed at anyone who would participate in the funerals or help the family. According to him, even clergymen and public figures were afraid to intervene. "If you are a clergyman, an imam in a mosque, a council member, or a Knesset member and you surrender to a murderer's threat - then what are you?" he said. "Being a public figure is a responsibility. If you cannot bear this responsibility, vacate the chair for someone else who does not surrender to threats." According to him, one of the clergymen even told him personally that he had received threats and therefore decided not to intervene. "If activists, public figures, sheikhs, and leaders are afraid, then how are we supposed to feel that someone is standing by our side?" he asked.

"Yes, there was revenge"

Musrati does not claim that the violence was one-sided. When asked explicitly if his family members also took revenge for the murders, he answered in the affirmative.

"There was, yes, there was revenge," he said. "I don't know who and I don't know what, but people were murdered from the other side too. Yes, people were murdered from the other side."

However, he claims that as far as the murder cases in his family are concerned, he did not see real progress in the investigations. "What is incomprehensible to me is that in all the murders that were on our side, there wasn't even one detainee," he said. "Detained for two or three days, even just to say 'here, we detained' - even that didn't happen. From my point of view, ten question marks should be placed on this."

Musrati says that in one of the cases, a police officer updated him with intelligence information that one of his family members would be harmed, and after that one of his relatives was murdered. In another case, he claims, after the murder of his first son, an officer called his second son and asked him to come regarding the danger to his life. "My son didn't trust him and told him: 'I don't want anything from you'," he said. "A month later my son was murdered."

In this context, the police stated: "In cases where information is received indicating a danger to a person, the police act in accordance with the situation assessment, including bringing the information to his knowledge and taking operational actions accordingly. Naturally, the existence of a warning about a danger does not necessarily indicate the existence of information that allows predicting the time of the event, its location, or the identity of its perpetrators, and it is not possible to detail the intelligence information and the operational actions taken as part of the handling of the conflict."

"Sulha? My life is already over"

Despite the long cycle of blood, other difficult conflicts in Arab society have ended in the past with Sulha agreements. But Musrati says that for him this possibility no longer exists.

"I say this honestly - after I lost my sons, what Sulha?" he said. "I cannot put my hand in the hand of someone who murdered my son. I can't even imagine it in a dream."

Even the fear that the conflict will continue to claim victims does not change his position, according to him. "I prefer to continue in this life," he said. "From my point of view, my life ended from the moment my children were murdered. Every day that I live now is overtime. My life is over, and so is my wife's life."

According to him, it is possible that early intervention could have prevented the deterioration of the conflict. "Sulha could have helped at the beginning of the road, if someone had taken responsibility and intervened for real," he said. "Maybe we wouldn't have reached this situation. But no one intervened. Everyone ignored, put hands on their eyes, closed their ears - they don't see and don't hear."

Even now, when he is not living in Israel, the sense of security has not returned. Musrati says he does not know who among his family members might be next. "I don't know what will be," he said. "It could be that I will lose another child, it could be that I will be murdered, it could be that my wife will be murdered or that my daughter will be harmed. This is a situation that I do not wish on any person."

The police stated: "This is a continuing blood feud between families, in which the Israel Police has been acting for a long time in the operational, intelligence, and investigative planes, including overt and covert actions, with the goal of preventing acts of violence, thwarting crime, and bringing those involved to justice. The Central District of the Israel Police will continue to act decisively against crime in the Arab sector, as part of the national struggle to curb the cycles of violence and blood feuds - for the sake of strengthening public security and the rule of law."