3 Israeli teens arrested for burning Arabs' vehicles

Three Israeli teenagers were arrested this week for allegedly setting ablaze Arab Israelis' cars in northern Israel last month following a Palestinian shooting attack in Tel Aviv.

The three 15-year-olds, from northern Israel, allegedly set fire to two vehicles in a parking lot on June 10 on the outskirts of Yafa an-Naseriyye, an Arab town in northern Israel, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement on Thursday.

Arab Israelis are Palestinians who stayed in Israel after the 1948 war and are citizens of the state, constituting 20 percent of the population.

The suspects also spray painted the words "price tag" and "revenge" on nearby walls, Samri added.

During the investigation, the three said they were motivated by the June 8 attack at the Sarona dining and retail center in Tel Aviv, in which four Israelis were killed by Palestinian gunmen.

Setting cars on fire and spray painting racial slurs is part of what came to be known in recent years as "price tag" attacks, in which extremist Jews, often youth, carry out bouts of vandalism against Palestinians, Arab Israelis and sometimes at Christian or Muslim religious sites.

"Price tag" acts are usually carried out following unfavorable decisions by the Israeli government regarding the settlements, or after Palestinian attacks, or protesting arrests of extreme settlers.

Israelis and Palestinians have been mired in a wave of unrest since October, which has claimed the lives of 34 Israelis and 216 Palestinians.

Also on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the arrest of six Palestinian suspects in overnight operations in the West Bank.

Security forces seized two weapon manufacturing machines in the area of Hebron, and arrested six Palestinian suspects, three of them in Hebron, and two others in Jenin.

The sixth, an activist of the Hamas Islamist group, was arrested west of Hebron, the IDF said in a statement.

According to the IDF, since the beginning of 2016, Israeli forces have seized 19 weapons manufacturing machines and over 200 firearms in the West Bank.

Israeli leaders accuse the Palestinian Authority of inciting violence, whereas the Palestinians say the latest wave of unrest is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories, home to several million Palestinians, and where they wish to establish their own state. Endit