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Photo: Courtesy Israel Police

By BEN HARTMAN for Jerusalem Post

Police apprehend three men suspected of torching a car belonging to a Palestinian, spray-painting "price tag" on nearby wall.

Undercover officers operating in the area of the West Bank village of Dahariya late Sunday night caught three men who torched a car belonging to a local Palestinian man and spray-painted “price tag” on a wall in the village, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Monday morning.

Police released a photo on Monday morning that showed the gear it said the suspects were carrying, including gloves, a balaclava, a fake M-16, a sack full of rocks, a Leatherman utility knife, a crowbar and a bottle carrying some sort of flammable liquid.

They underwent questioning by Judea and Samaria police, who said they are suspected of being linked to other ideological crimes carried out in the West Bank in the past.

During an undercover operation in early October, three cops dressed as Palestinian shepherds were assaulted by settlers wielding sticks and wearing T-shirts over their faces as masks, who told them to leave the area. Police said the sting was planned after a long series of attacks by settlers against Palestinian shepherds and left-wing activists in the southern Hebron Hills.

Also in October, police Insp.-Gen. Yohanan Danino announced plans to expand the Judea and Samaria branch of the YAMAR central investigative unit, in order to fight crimes of a national character committed by both Jews and Arabs.

The announcement came after Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said in September that police must show “zero tolerance” toward ideological crimes, often referred to as “price-tag” attacks, and that police would launch a new unit to fight such incidents that would include undercover patrols in the West Bank.

The three suspects were brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for a hearing on Monday morning, and their remands were extended until December 9.