Suspected Jewish Extremists Torch Palestinian Cars

Suspected Jewish extremists torched two cars and scrawled graffiti on a nearby wall in a West Bank village before dawn Thursday, Palestinian residents said, the latest in a series of vandalism attacks.

Near the two burnt-out vehicles in Al-Mughayer, east of Ramallah, someone had written "death to Arabs" on the wall of a home, an Agence France Presse photographer said.

"Settlers regularly come to attack the village, pulling up trees and so on. They've twice burned the mosque," said a witness, who refused to give his name for fear of reprisals.

"Around 4:00 am (0200 GMT) I saw the fire and rushed down to stop it. The settlers had already left," he said.

Last week suspected Jewish extremists set fire to a Christian seminary building in Jerusalem, a day after a mosque was torched in the West Bank.

The incidents bore the hallmarks of "price tag" attacks, a euphemism for Jewish nationalist-motivated hate crimes. These generally target Palestinians or Arab Israelis but have increasingly also hit Christian and Muslim places of worship.