Israeli motorists pelted with stones in several West Bank areas

A spate of rock-throwing incidents took place Sunday evening targeting Israeli vehicles in the West Bank, after a week of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces in and around Jerusalem.

On Route 443 northwest of Jerusalem, Palestinians threw stones at passing motorists, damaging three cars.

Stones were also thrown at Israeli drivers on Route 60 near the Beit Anun intersection near Hebron, in the southern West Bank.

Egged bus No. 149 was pelted with rocks and paint between Hizma and Anatot north of Jerusalem, but no injuries or physical damage to the bus were reported.

The incidents are part of a recent spike in attacks, some of them deadly, against Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The cabinet on Sunday debated increasing the severity of judicial and law-enforcement responses to such attacks.

On Sunday, the Israel Police said they had arrested 39 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem for “disturbing the peace,” “taking part in riots” and “throwing stones and Molotov cocktails.”

Israel has vowed to crack down on Palestinians hurling stones and firebombs in Jerusalem and across the West Bank after a week of violence in the capital and on the Temple Mount, which began last Sunday when police — acting on information from the Shin Bet security service — raided the compound and found pipe bombs and other improvised weapons, apparently prepared in advance for an organized riot.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to seek harsher penalties and mandatory minimum sentences for those convicted of throwing rocks and firebombs, and fines for parents of minors found to have committed the acts.