‘Why did we all have to lie on the ground for 30 minutes?’: Police raid Arab wedding in Israel

Wedding guests on the ground, 15 August 2026

Deiaa Haj Yahia reports in Haaretz on 17 August 2026:

Hundreds of Arab citizens of Israel gathered Saturday night for a wedding in the northern city of Umm al-Fahm.

Shortly after 10 P.M., as relatives and friends of the Affan Mahameed family were still dancing around the groom in the Ein al-Maghara neighborhood, large forces of the Israel Police and Border Police raided the area.

Within minutes, the wedding turned into what family members described as more of a police enforcement operation than a family celebration. Stun grenades were thrown, armed officers spread out among the guests, and most of those present were ordered to lie on the ground and not move.

The forces eventually left after finding no weapons and making no arrests.

Family members told Haaretz that guests remained lying on the ground for about half an hour as officers moved among them and searched them. Anyone who tried to get up or understand what was happening was ordered to stay down, they said. Shouting could be heard around them, and within minutes the festive atmosphere gave way to panic and uncertainty.

The groom’s father, Mustafa Mahameed, said anyone who raised their head to find out what was happening risked being struck. His cousin, Zahi Jabareen, was allegedly hit in the back with a Taser.  “What did he do? Did you find anything on him? You found nothing,” Mahameed said.

The groom’s father vividly remembers the moment the wedding was interrupted. The celebration was already nearing its end, and he had asked the singer to move on to songs dedicated to the groom’s parents. Family members placed a chair in the middle of the dance floor, gathered around the groom and continued singing.  “I even banned fireworks at the wedding because of the noise,” the father said. “I didn’t want to disturb anyone.”

Then came the first explosion. At first, Mahameed said, he thought it was a firework, but within seconds realized it was a stun grenade. “They didn’t come in and ask what happened or who did what. They immediately started shouting: ‘On your stomach, don’t get up, don’t move.’ We weren’t even allowed to ask what was happening.”

Yousef Mahameed, the groom’s uncle, was among the guests ordered to lie on the ground. He said that at first he had no idea why the forces had entered the venue.  “They told us to lie down. I asked, ‘Why? What did we do?'” he said. “I’m 67 years old, and at that moment I felt like I wasn’t even a human being anymore. Anyone who tried to speak or ask something was shoved or hit.”

According to Mahameed, the advanced age of some guests did not change the officers’ conduct. He described elderly guests being forced to lie on the ground and said police used force against a woman around 80 years old.

Children around them were terrified by the shouting, the stun grenades and the sight of adults lying on the ground, he said. “It was like Judgment Day. A child sees his father or mother on the ground, sees armed police officers and everyone shouting. Children wet themselves out of fear.”

Israeli officers entered the venue over suspicions that a firearm had been used during the wedding, but no weapon was found and none of the guests were arrested. The disparity between the large number of officers who raided the event and the outcome of the operation is at the heart of the Mahameed family’s anger.

“For us, the question isn’t only why the police entered the wedding, but why all of us were made to lie on the ground for over 30 minutes. Why was it necessary to throw stun grenades and use force to search for a weapon?” the groom’s father asked.

Yousef, the groom’s uncle, described the forces’ arrival in terms of a military operation. “There were more than 100 police officers and troops there, with weapons and grenades. We felt like we were at war, like we were in Gaza and not at a wedding in Umm al-Fahm.”

At one point, he said, he noticed a young man lying on the ground beside him being assaulted by police officers. “I told them: He’s already lying down, he’s not doing anything.” For a moment, he added, he thought the young man was dead.

“What for?” he asked. “If you want to search for weapons, then search. Nobody told you not to. But why humiliate and beat everyone? In the end, they found nothing. If someone fired a gun, look for him. But why treat everyone as if they’re criminals?”

“I felt that we Arabs were worthless in their eyes,” he said. “This isn’t security. It’s an assault on people’s dignity.”

According to the groom’s father, everyone present, without exception, was ordered to lie on the ground. “There were lawyers, academics, small children and elderly people there. My grandson, who is two years old, wet himself out of fear,” he said.

Only after half an hour, he said, did police begin allowing guests to get up one by one and searching them. Tensions continued in the street even after the searches, as additional forces arrived and stun grenades were thrown toward young people in the area.

“I’m against violence and against gunfire,” the father said. “If there’s a weapon, they should take it. If they had found even a single bullet, they could say they entered the wedding and found a weapon. But you searched and found nothing. So why ruin a celebration for hundreds of people?”

For him, the harm goes beyond what his family experienced that night. Word of the incident, he said, has already spread, introducing a new element of fear into other weddings.

“There are dozens of weddings taking place in Arab society now. Everyone who has a wedding is thinking, ‘Maybe they’ll come into mine next and ruin it too,'” he said. “Even if the police ultimately don’t show up, the fear is already there.”

“If the police want to fight illegal weapons, I’m with them,” he added. “But the fight against weapons cannot become the humiliation of an entire community.”

Israel Police said in response: “The operation documented in the video was carried out following suspicion that weapons had been used during a wedding. Accordingly, police officers and forces at the scene acted to investigate the suspicions and locate the weapons. Israel Police will continue to act decisively and without compromise against the phenomenon of gunfire at weddings.”

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