Six held over Tel Aviv firebombs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/7681985.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Israeli police have arrested six Jewish youths on suspicion of throwing petrol bombs at Israeli-Arab homes in the south of Tel Aviv.

Two apartments were damaged in the HaTikva neighbourhood a week ago.

The incidents took place in the wake of several days of rioting between Arabs and Jews in the ethnically mixed town of Acre in the north of Israel.

Police said they suspected the attacks were "nationalistically motivated", Israeli media reported.

In addition, three Jewish youths have been arrested in connection with clashes between Jews and Israeli-Arabs in Jerusalem on Saturday night.

Six Arabs were lightly injured in the incidents, the Israeli media reported.

There have been concerns over tensions between Jews and Israeli-Arabs since the Acre riots.

The clashes broke out after an Israeli-Arab man drove into a mainly Jewish neighbourhood during the solemn fasting day of Yom Kippur, during which most Jews in Israel refrain from eating or driving in public.

Israeli Arabs are people of Palestinian origin whose forbears remained in Israel after the foundation of the country in 1948.

They make up about a fifth of Israel's population. They have full rights as Israeli citizens, but face widespread discrimination, according to human rights groups.