Police in Jerusalem shot and wounded a Palestinian man accused of setting a car on fire and vandalizing other vehicles in the Jewish neighborhood of Neve Yaakov early Monday, officials said.
A police statement detailed that officers suspected the midnight attack was motivated by nationalist sentiment.
According to police, officers responding to a complaint of cars being damaged found a man in a jacket “holding some sort of object”.
A police statement said officers attempted to apprehend the man, identified as being in his 20s from East Jerusalem, and asked him to remove his jacket, but he ignored their calls.
“At a certain point, the suspect started chanting Allahu Akbar [“God is great” in Arabic] and other verses, and an officer fired a single shot at him,” the statement read.
Police said he was brought to a local hospital for treatment, but did not elaborate on the location or extent of his injuries.
According to officials, one car was set on fire and at least 10 others were damaged.
Photos distributed by police showed several parked cars with side-view mirrors that had been knocked out. One car showed evidence of more extensive damage, showing shattered or blackened windows and mild burn marks on a door.
It was not clear whether the incident was linked to recent tensions in the capital, which escalated earlier this month following a police raid on the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Fighting between authorities and Palestinians at the flashpoint site led to two deadly terror attacks, and rockets fired from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, for which Israel blamed Hamas.
