JERUSALEM (AP) -- A new rogue element has emerged in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Unknown assailants, widely assumed to
be Jewish extremists, have vandalized Muslim cemeteries, mosques
and farmlands in a spate of attacks that have put the country on
edge.

These attacks, which have recently spread from the West Bank into Israel proper, have stoked fears of heightened violence and sparked increased calls to find and punish the assailants. On Sunday, Israeli leaders chimed in with condemnations, and police said they were stepping up efforts to halt the violence.

In the latest incident, vandals sprayed-painted "Death to the Arabs" in Muslim and Christian cemeteries in Tel Aviv. The rampage, discovered late Saturday after Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, followed a mosque burning last week in an Arab village in northern Israel.

For several years, Israeli settlers have frequently attacked Palestinian targets in the West Bank, vandalizing mosques and uprooting olive trees. Nationalist settlers oppose a Palestinian state on what they say is land promised to Jews in the Bible.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)