Why an Israeli town’s mayor is warning of civil war

"Civil war has broken out in Lod."

That is how Mayor Yair Revivo described the situation after violence exploded in the mixed Arab-Jewish Israeli town, lying 15km (9 miles) south-east of Tel Aviv.

Protests by Israeli Arabs in the town turned into full-scale riots on Tuesday night. Demonstrators clashed with police and set cars and buildings ablaze, the day after a funeral for a man allegedly shot dead by Jewish residents.

"This is a complete loss of control," Mr Revivo told Israel's Channel 12 news_copy. "Synagogues are being burned. Hundreds of cars set alight… The situation is incendiary."

Violence also flared in other cities and towns with sizeable Arab populations – including neighbouring Ramle, Acre, Jaffa, Jisr al-Zarqa and Umm al-Fahm. Police arrested 270 people.

"The sight of the pogrom in Lod and the disturbances across the country by an incited and bloodthirsty Arab mob, injuring people, damaging property and even attacking sacred Jewish spaces is unforgiveable," President Reuven Rivlin said on Wednesday.

He added: "The silence of the Arab leadership about these disturbances is shameful, giving support to terrorism and rioting and encouraging the rupture of the society in which we live and in which we will continue to live once all this has passed."