Police arrest three Jews for alleged hate crimes

The police and Shin Bet security service arrested three Jewish Israelis Monday on suspicion of involvement in race-related hate crimes.

Any further details of the investigation, which came amid an ongoing crackdown on Jewish terror, were under a court gag order, police said.

The police have placed news of high-profile arrests of right-wing extremists under wraps since the start of a crackdown following last summer’s fatal torching of a Palestinian home by suspected Jewish radicals.

Israel has charged a man and a minor over the attack, which triggered a crackdown on Jewish extremists, but the identity of the adult suspect — Amiram Ben-Uliel — wasn’t published for months thereafter.

Several extreme right-wing Israeli settlers, including alleged ringleader Meir Ettinger, have been detained without charge since the deadly attack on the Dawabsha family home in the village of Duma in July.

Under administrative detention — an anti-terror measure more commonly used for Palestinian security prisoners — a detainee can be held for six months without being charged or tried. The order can be renewed indefinitely in six-month increments.

Ettinger has been denied release even though he has not been directly linked to the firebombing, which left a Palestinian baby and both his parents dead.

Jewish extremists are also suspected of attacking Palestinians, torching homes and cars, and vandalizing mosques and churches in the West Bank and Israel.