JERUSALEM : Suspected Jewish extremists carried out a string of attacks against about 20 Palestinian cars in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, Israeli police and witnesses said on Wednesday.
The attacks appeared to be linked to the stabbing of a Jewish settler called Eviatar Borovsky who was killed by a knife-wielding Palestinian in the northern West Bank exactly 30 days ago.
Wednesday marked the official ending of the traditional mourning period. “There have been 10 arson attempts against Palestinian cars in the West Bank on suspected nationalist grounds,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP, saying one car had been completely destroyed while the others were just damaged.
Four vehicles were set alight in Zbeidat and another four in Marj Naja, both of which are near Jericho, and another two in Rantis near Ramallah, she said.
Residents in Zbeidat and Marj Naja confirmed at least six vehicles including a bus and a tractor had been torched.
At the sites, the attackers had written slogans in Hebrew including: “Price tag” and “revenge” and “30 days since Eviatar, may God avenge him,” Samri said.
In the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Shuafat, vandals slashed the tyres of 10 cars and scrawled Hebrew graffiti in the same vein, she said.
Such incidents are commonly referred to as “price tag” attacks, a euphemism for hate crimes against Palestinians by Israeli extremists.
They initially began in response to Israeli government moves to dismantle unauthorised settler outposts, but have since become commonplace after attacks on settlers.