In another suspected act of revenge for recent terror attacks, a car was set alight and graffiti saying “Jews, wake up” was sprayed on a wall in the Palestinian village of Jaloud on Sunday, near the West Bank city of Nablus.
Residents of the village filmed footage of a car on fire and a separate clip of an ambulance, with the sirens wailing, making its way down a road.
A photo from the scene showed a wall with the words “Jews, wake up” sprayed in Hebrew.
The incident was a suspected “price tag” attack — anti-Palestinian vandalism or attacks by Jewish extremists, an increasingly common occurrence in the West Bank.
Arrests of “price tag” perpetrators are exceedingly rare and rights groups lament that convictions are even more unusual, with the majority of charges in such cases being dropped.
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On Sunday, masked attackers set alight a car in the West Bank Palestinian town of Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah, destroying the vehicle and causing damage to the home where it was parked, Palestinian sources said.
“Jews wake up” sprayed on a wall in the Palestinian village of Jaloud, West Bank, January 29, 2023. (Yesh Din)
Security cameras recorded three people climbing over a wall surrounding the home and setting the car on fire. Flames spread to a patio roof, which was also destroyed. The invaders also damaged an olive tree. Light damage was caused to the building itself but there were no reports of injuries.
In other violence, Palestinians said settlers attacked cars and property in a number of locations across the West Bank, including in Huwara, where they reportedly smashed shop windows. Local Palestinians reportedly hurled stones at the settlers to drive them off.
The vandalism came in the wake of several Palestinian terror attacks over the weekend that killed seven Israelis and seriously injured five others.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking Saturday night at the beginning of a security cabinet meeting to discuss the deadly terror attacks and heightened tension, urged Israelis against seeking revenge for the terror assaults.
“I call again to the citizens of Israel: Do not take the law into your hands. We are not in the days of the [Jewish] Underground. We have a sovereign country, with an excellent army, government, and security forces,” he said. “Let them do their work.”
المستوطنون يحرقون منزل المواطن عودة جبارة في ترمسعيا شمال رام الله #جنين_تقاوم #جنين #القدس #عملية_القدس #سلوان #عملية_سلوان pic.twitter.com/aYGwawIu7Q
— zeina sandouka (@ZeinaSandoukaa) January 29, 2023
קופצים מעל הגדר, מציתים רכב ונמלטים: חשד להצתה של יהודים בכפר פלסטיני צפונית לרמאללה@carmeldangor pic.twitter.com/SlAmA04ttL
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 29, 2023
According to Channel 12, reported incidents of nationalist crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank have soared in recent days.
Israeli security services, including the Shin Bet, are concerned over a possible backlash from Jewish extremists to the weekend terror attacks and have been grouping to counter the threat, Hebrew media reported.
On Friday night, a Palestinian gunman from East Jerusalem killed seven people and injured three more in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood, and the next morning, a 13-year-old Palestinian shot and wounded two men near the Old City.
On Saturday evening, a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a restaurant near Almog Junction close to Jericho in the West Bank, causing no injuries, and later that night, a Palestinian man armed with a handgun was shot dead by a security guard near the northern West Bank settlement of Kedumim.
Police on Saturday raised the national alert to its highest level following the attacks. On Sunday, the head of the Police Operations Division, Deputy Commissioner Sigal Bar Zvi, told reporters that there were 41 intelligence alerts of potential attacks.
