An arson attack on Monday was apparently carried out by Israeli attackers, who also threw stones at passing Arab drivers.
Attackers started a fire near the Arab town of Kfar Jaloud. The fire was put out by Israeli security forces.
The rock attacks caused damage to two cars, and lightly injured one Arab man, who was evacuated to a Palestinian Authority hospital. The PA and Israel issue license plates in different colors, making it possible for attackers to differentiate between Israeli and PA Arab drivers.
The attacks took place in the Shilo bloc in the Binyamin region. IDF soldiers are searching for the culprits.
The attacks appear to be part of the “price tag” movement, which targets Arabs with graffiti and occasional violence in response to assaults on Jewish communities or damage to Jewish property.
The attacks were apparently sparked by the uprooting of an Israeli-owned olive grove near the town of Eli. The grove was destroyed by Border Police officers on Monday morning, after local PA Arabs appealed to Israel’s Supreme Court and claimed the land on which it had been planted as their own.
Most rock and firebomb attacks in the Judea and Samaria (Shomron) regions are carried out by Arabs targeting Jews, and dozens of Israelis were injured in such attacks last month alone.
However, there are occasional reports of “road terror” targeting Arabs as well, the most serious example being a firebomb attack last year that injured an Arab family. Suspicion has largely fallen on local Israeli Jews in those cases, although the Jewish communities involved have argued that they are being falsely accused, and that many so-called “Jewish terror” attacks may in fact have been Arab terror attacks that had unintended results.