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JERUSALEM, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Israel indicted Tuesday three Israeli teens for vandalizing vehicles of Arab Israelis in revenge of a deadly Tel Aviv shooting attack in June.
The Israeli prosecution's Northern District filed an indictment against three 15-year-old Jews from northern Israel at the Nazareth District Court on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Court Authority's spokesperson.
According to the indictment, two of the defendants set vehicles of Arab Israelis ablaze and spray painted "price tag" and "revenge" on nearby walls at the village of Yafa an-Naseriyye in northern Israel on June 10.
The two are charged with vandalizing a vehicle from racist motives, arson, and obstruction of justice. The third defendant was charged with not preventing a crime. Their names were not released for publication as they are minors.
Arab Israelis are Palestinians who stayed in Israel after the 1948 war and are citizens of the state, constituting 20 percent of the population.
This act of vandalism occurred two days after Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis in a Tel Aviv shooting attack.
The defendants said during their police investigation that they had carried out their deeds in revenge of the attack, according to police spokeswoman Luba Samri.
Setting cars on fire and spray painting racial slurs is part of what came to be known in recent years as "price tag" attacks, in which extremist Jews, often youth, vandalize the property of Palestinians, Arab Israelis, and sometimes Christian or Muslim religious sites.
"Price tag" acts are usually carried out following unfavorable decisions by the Israeli government regarding the settlements, after Palestinian attacks, or protesting arrests of extremist settlers.
Israelis and Palestinians have been mired in a wave of unrest since October, which had claimed the lives of 34 Israelis and 218 Palestinians.
Israeli leaders accuse the Palestinian Authority of inciting violence, whereas the Palestinians say the latest wave of unrest is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories, home to several million Palestinians, and where they wish to establish their own state. Enditem
