Molotov cocktail hurled at car in East Jerusalem

A Molotov cocktail and several bags filled with paint were hurled Wednesday at a vehicle near a mosque in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, police said.

No injuries or damage were reported in the incident, according to Israel Radio. Police were searching the area for the perpetrators.

Earlier Wednesday two Border Police officers were lightly injured when a Palestinian man veered off the road and hit them with an SUV in what police said was a deliberate attack.

The driver was shot by police and critically wounded after he tried to back up and run over the injured officers again, police said. He was administered first aid at the scene but died shortly thereafter.

The incident occurred at the A-Tur junction in the northeast of the capital, near the Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus and the Mount of Olives.

Several local residents pelted police and rescue services with rocks after the incident.

It was the latest in a string of lone-wolf attacks by Palestinians using their cars to ram pedestrians or police, in a trend that began in Jerusalem in October but has also spread to the West Bank.

On Saturday fires broke out at two synagogues in the East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev, in what police suspected to be deliberate arson attacks. Palestinians from the neighboring refugee camp of Shuafat hurled rocks and other objects at firefighting teams that attempted to extinguish the blazes, according to the Ynet news site. No injuries were reported.