A Haifa resident was arrested on Sunday morning for vandalizing and setting fire to a synagogue in the city, the Israel Police said.
The 44-year-old man was caught by police officers while setting a tallit (prayer shawl) and religious books ablaze inside the synagogue.
The man also threatened to “kill all the rabbis” when he comes back to “burn the synagogue down,” according to police.
The suspect is under interrogation by police, who will request an extension to his arrest in the Haifa Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
The alleged hate crime committed in the largest mixed city in Israel comes amid an increase in tensions between Israeli forces and Palestinians, mostly focused on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and al-Aqsa Mosque.
While Israel has yet to see an increase of violence in its mixed cities in this current round of riots and rockets launched from Gaza, riots in mixed cities such as Lod, Acre and Jaffa were prominent during last May’s Operation Guardian of the Walls.
Police even imposed a curfew on Lod at the time due to a number of severe Arab riots during which they reportedly threw Molotov cocktails and stones toward Jewish residents.
Rioters in May also set fire to dozens of cars in the city, threw stones and firebombs, smashed shop windows and uprooted trees.