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This is the second incident in just 24 hours: a mosque and cars were vandalized by extremists in Fureidis a day earlier.

By Jack Khoury and Eli Ashkenazi for Haaretz

A car belonging to a Nazareth resident was vandalized on Wednesday in an apparent hate crime carried out by Jewish extremists, the second in the last 24 hours.

The tires on the car, which was parked in the predominantly Jewish town Yokneam, were slashed and a Star of David was spray painted on its doors. This was the sixth time a car belonging to an Arab has been vandalized in the town in the last month.

In Acre, meanwhile, seven cars belonging to both Jews and Arabs were also vandalized. The mixed identities of those car owners prompted police to play down suspicions that it was an extremist nationalist act, suspecting instead mere vandalism. The Acre Police have opened an investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile, residents in the northern Israeli Arab town of Fureidis declared a general strike on Wednesday to protest the hate crime carried out there a day earlier.

Vandals sprayed graffiti of a Star of David and the phrase "close mosques, not yeshivas" on a mosque there overnight Monday. Tires of several cars parked in the area were also found slashed.

Police Major General and Coastal District Commander Haggai Dotan called the incident severe and said the police would make every effort to find the culprits.

Two weeks ago, graffiti was sprayed on a mosque in Umm al-Fahm and vandals tried to torch the entrance to the mosque. The incident stirred up tensions and a week ago, a protest was held at the entrance to the Israeli Arab city.

Demonstrators blocked access to the road for an hour and held signs that read: "Price tag - terror organization."

So-called "price tag" attacks are said to be carried out as revenge against the Israeli government's policies on West Bank settlements.