Occupied Jerusalem — Six Israelis, including two soldiers, have been arrested for racist attacks against Arabs with knives and other weapons and charged with “terrorist” offenses, authorities said Sunday.
The suspects are accused of having used knives, clubs and bars to carry out at least five separate anti-Arab attacks and acts of vandalism against cars belonging to Arabs, police said in a statement.
Police did not provide details on whether the attacks resulted in serious injuries or how many people were targeted. They were charged in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
The accused were allegedly motivated by “nationalist and racist” beliefs, including seeking to prevent Jewish women from having relationships with Arab men.
According to police, they were influenced by a video from the Jewish extreme right group Lehava, which opposes inter-marriage.
In August 2014, Lehava activists staged a rally where racist slogans, including “Death to Arabs!”, were shouted at the wedding near Tel Aviv of a Muslim man and Jewish woman.
The group’s leader, Benzi Gopstein, was questioned by police in 2015 after he condoned torching churches in Israel, in accordance with a mediaeval Jewish commandment to destroy places of idol-worship.
Arabs account for some 17.5 percent of Israel’s eight million population.
Meanwhile, an Israeli attack on a Syrian camp for pro-government forces killed three fighters near the Golan Heights on Sunday, an official from the forces said.
The official told AFP that two fighters were also wounded in the attack on the Al-Fawwar camp near Quneitra in southwestern Syria, adding that it was unclear whether the damage was inflicted by an air strike or shelling.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the attack had targeted a “weapons warehouse” in the camp. Israel’s army declined to comment Sunday on the attack.
On Friday the army said it targeted positions inside Syria in retaliation for mortar fire that hit the northern part of the Golan Heights.
Syria’s official news agency SANA said Israel had struck a Syrian army position in the province of Quneitra on the Golan plateau, “causing damage”.
Israel seized 1,200 square km of the Golan from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.
Around 510 square km of the Golan are under Syrian control.
The two countries are still technically at war, although the border remained largely quiet for decades until 2011, when the Syrian conflict broke out.
The Israeli side is hit sporadically by what are usually deemed to be stray rounds, and Israel has recently taken to opening fire in retaliation. — Agencies
