East Jerusalem cars vandalized in suspected anti-Arab attack

Police opened an investigation Friday morning after the tires of several cars were slashed in East Jerusalem overnight.

Police said cars were damaged in two locations in what was being reported as a suspected anti-Arab hate crime.

A photograph from one scene also showed a truck graffitied with the words “No more Arab terrorism.”

A similar attack took place overnight in the Palestinian village of Asira al-Qibliya, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, according to reports.

Police also said it was investigating reports of a suspected hate attack in the nearby Palestinian town of Urif, where vandals spray-painted a Star of David alongside the slogan “Fight the enemy not the friend.”

Palestinian residents of the Nablus region are the frequent targets of such attacks, which are generally attributed to far-right Israelis.

Last Wednesday, Palestinian residents of Urif in the northern West Bank woke up to find a car torched and Hebrew graffiti spray-painted on the walls of a building.

Last month, a Palestinian mother of eight was killed when a rock the size of a large tissue box flew through the windshield of the car her husband was driving and struck the head of Aisha Rabi, who was sitting in the passenger seat.

Her husband has asserted that the stone was thrown by Israeli settlers, as he heard Hebrew being spoken. The Shin Bet and Israel Police have both opened probes into the incident, which remain under gag order.

However, The Times of Israel learned earlier this month that the growing conviction among defense officials was that the 47-year-old Rabi was killed in a terror attack perpetrated by Israelis.

Jacob Magid contributed to this report.