Riots have broken out in the mixed city of Acre after an Israeli Arab man drove his car during the Yom Kippur religious holiday, Israeli reports say.
Dozens of cars and shops were damaged as hundreds of people took to the streets, Haaretz newspaper reported.
For Jews, Yom Kippur is a sombre day of fasting, during which it is considered offensive to drive in much of Israel.
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He is reported to have said he was simply driving to a property he owned in the eastern part of the city.
"This is a very serious incident that the city of Acre has not seen the likes of in recent years and we will deal with all the rioters and those who take the law into their own hands with an iron fist," the head of the Acre police station, Chief Superintendent Avi Edri, told Haaretz.
The city has a mixed population, with the highest concentration of Israeli Arabs in the Old City.
Israeli Arabs are people of Palestinian origin whose forbears remained in Israel after the foundation of the country in 1948.
They number about one million - about one-fifth of the Israeli population - and although they have full rights as Israeli citizens they often complain of discrimination and exclusion.
(BBC)
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