Sharp rise in femicide in Israel in 2025, firearms become leading weapon
Femicide cases include murders committed by partners or family members, so-called “honor killings,” and matricide, while excluding deaths resulting from terrorism, accidents, or negligence.
The number of women murdered in Israel in 2025 remained largely unchanged from the previous year, but the rate of femicide – the killing of women because they are women – rose sharply, according to a new report published Wednesday by the Israel Observatory on Femicide (IOF).
The report found that 44 women over the age of 18 were murdered between January 1 and December 24, 2025. Of these cases, 34 met the definition of femicide, marking a 48% increase compared to 2024, when 23 femicides were documented.
Femicide cases included murders committed by partners or family members, so-called “honor killings,” and matricide, while excluding deaths resulting from terrorism, accidents, or negligence. The remaining 10 cases involved Arab women killed in criminal contexts rather than gender-based violence.
For the first time since the IOF began tracking the phenomenon, firearms were the most commonly used weapon in femicides. Fourteen women were killed by gunfire in 2025, surpassing knife attacks (13 cases), with the remainder involving strangulation, beatings, or burning.
This marked a dramatic shift from the previous year, when only three femicides were carried out using firearms. However, the report stresses that the increase is driven almost entirely by illegal weapons, particularly within Arab society.
People take part in a protest march as part of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Tel Aviv, November 24, 2022. (credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
No correlation betwen legal gun ownership and femicide
In 10 of the 11 cases involving illegal firearms, the victim was an Arab woman. All criminal murders of women in the Arab sector this year were carried out using illegal guns, the report found.
Despite public debate surrounding thedistribution of firearms following the October 7 attacks, the IOF found no correlation between legal gun ownership and femicide.
Of the four Jewish women killed by gunfire, three were murdered by men who held firearms licenses as part of their employment, such as police officers or security guards. Overall, most femicides involving firearms were committed with illegal weapons, leading the report to conclude that licensed firearms were not a significant risk factor in femicide cases.
The report calls for “serious policy changes” to address the widespread availability of illegal weapons, particularly in Arab communities, noting that these weapons dominate both femicide and broader criminal violence against women.
The IOF also identified a troubling increase in matricide. Seven women were murdered by their sons in 2025 – a 21% rise from the previous year. Six of these cases involved Jewish women, all over the age of 60.
In several cases, the perpetrators were known psychiatric patients, though the report noted that authorities did not consistently monitor them. Two sons died by suicide after killing their mothers, part of a broader pattern in which seven perpetrators took their own lives following femicide – all of them Jewish – representing a 30% increase in murder-suicides compared to last year
The IOF was established in 2020 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is headed by Prof. Shalva Weil. It compiles its findings from daily local and national media reports, police information, and interviews with legal representatives and victims’ families.
