JERUSALEM: Ayman Odeh, a member of the Zionist parliament of Palestinian descent, accused the government on Sunday of failing to provide Arab-Zionist communities in the with enough shelters after an Iranian missile killed four people in the city of Tamra. “The state, unfortunately, still distinguishes between blood and blood,” Odeh lamented on X, after touring the city of 37,000 predominantly Arab residents.

A house there was destroyed by a missile launched by Iran overnight in response to the Zionist entity’s unprecedented attacks on the Islamic republic’s military and nuclear sites. “Four civilians were killed yesterday: Manar al-Qassem Abu al-Hija Khatib (39), her two daughters Hala (13) and Shada (20), and their relative Manar Diab Khatib (41),” Odeh said, adding that “dozens more” were wounded.

Cars and buildings were also damaged by the strike on the community in the Zionist region of Galilee, an AFP journalist at the scene reported. “Tamra is not a village. It is a city without public shelters,” Odeh said, adding that this was the case for 60 percent of “local authorities” — the Zionist term for communities not officially registered as cities, many of which are Arab.

Arab-Zionists are Palestinians who remained in what is now the Zionist entity after its creation in 1948, and represent about 20 percent of the country’s population. The community frequently professes to face discrimination from the Zionist entity’s Jewish majority.

With the Zionist entity and Iran engaged in their most intense confrontation ever, Odeh, a communist MP for over 10 years, warned of “a threat of unprecedented destruction (that) will not distinguish” between Arabs and Jews. He also accused the government of “neglect” towards citizens of Palestinian descent. A video shared on social media Sunday night caused outrage after showing families apparently rejoicing in Hebrew as missiles fell on Tamra. — AFP