Israelis vandalize cars in attacks against Palestinians: police

Dozens of Palestinian cars were vandalized, with racist slogans being spray-painted on, in two separate hate attacks in East Jerusalem and a northern Israeli city on Tuesday, the police said.

The police suspect that the attacks were perpetrated by ultra-nationalists Israelis.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that some 20 vehicles were vandalized in Shuafat, a Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem, at around 5:30 (around 2:30 am GMT) in the morning.

Some of the cars were spray-painted with graffiti reading, "price tag," the name for Israeli hate crime attacks against Palestinians and their property.

Shortly later, some eight cars were vandalized in Ne'ura, an Arab village near the city of Afula in northern Israel. The perpetrators also sprayed graffiti reading "administrative price tag" and "Mouhamad is a pig."

According to Samri, the police launched an investigation but has yet to apprehend any suspects.

Local media speculated that the incidents were carried out by Jewish extremists in retribution to restraining orders that the police have issued against so-called "hilltop youths," or young violent settlers from the West Bank. The police said it issued these orders as a preemptive measure in the wake of frequent violent incidents in the area.

In recent weeks, young settlers were captured on video beating Palestinian farmers, Israeli human rights defenders who were accompanying Palestinian shepherds, and even hurling rocks at soldiers.

Far-right Israelis have carried out thousands of the so-called "price tag" attacks over the past years. The attacks include violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel and vandalism of mosques, churches, cemeteries, and personal property.

Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and had controlled it ever since, in a move denounced by the international community. Enditem