On Saturday night, Arabs firebombed a nightclub in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem. The men hurled four Molotov cocktails towards the club. One of the firebombs burst right outside the nightclub.

Police pursued the perpetrators and arrested three Arabs who were involved in the attack. The attack occurred around midnight. The club is situated in an area frequented by students from the nearby Hebrew University.

One person was lightly injured from smoke inhalation. Police are working on determining whether the attack was politically or criminally motivated.

MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) dubbed the incident as a “terror attack in the capital” and said that laws against throwing Molotov cocktails were “incomplete.”

The French Hill area has a history of violent activity perpetrated by residents of nearby Arab neighborhoods. Attacks include numerous firebombing and stone throwing incidents as well as setting cars on fire. Majority of the attacks have been directed towards students of Hebrew University.

Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told the Times of Israel that between January and February of this year, there was a surge in firebombing and stone throwing attacks in French Hill. Police arrested 16 men who orchestrated many of the attacks.

According to Rosenfeld, since then the French Hill neighborhood has been “relatively quiet, and obviously yesterday’s incident is something that was rather extreme.”

The Jerusalem Municipality has taken proactive steps to prevent the infiltration of Arabs into the French Hill area who seek to carry out attacks. Between the Jewish and Arab neighborhoods, the municipality dug a channel and installed security cameras and lighting to monitor the area.

On Thursday, in a separate incident in French Hill, a man was attacked by rock throwing Arab youth at a gas station in the area. The attackers were form the Arab neighborhood of Issawiya. They threw stones and bricks at his car, lightly injuring the victim and shattering the rear windshield of his car.

The victim, Raphael Delarosa, told Arutz Sheva, “I was on my way to a building supplies store right behind the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital, on the border between two Jerusalem neighborhoods – Issawiya and French Hill.”

“I left the store, said thank to the pleasant Arab salespeople, drove 50 meters and suddenly was attacked by a hail of blocks and stones, thrown by 16 to 17-year-old youth.”