Around the Mosque of Saint John of Acre, in northern Israel, fireworks are not fired to celebrate but to confront.

They are directed towards the police by young Israeli Arabs, barricaded following a rumor which announced an attack on the building by extremist Jews.

Attempting to contain the group, the police do not let the inhabitants join the area.

"It is true that we are in solidarity with al Aqsa, we love al Aqsa, we love Jerusalem, but that is no reason to do things like that", reacts a resident.

"The city is closed, women and children are trapped, it's good kid's work! This violence is useless."

Usually bustling, the city is now almost empty.

Hussein Assadi, a town hall employee, does not remember such tensions.

"Things have gotten out of hand, it's taking on a scale that is beyond us, it's the first time I've seen something like this here," he said at the microphone of France 24.

On the phone, his brother says he is stranded in a supermarket where extremist Jews threaten customers.

"Go into the supermarket, hide in it", intimate Hussein to him.

"Don't go out, even if you have to sleep there!"

>> To read: Who are the Israeli Arabs, these Palestinians from Israel?

"It is living together that is targeted"

At the mosque, clashes continue through the night.

In the morning, the Mediterranean city finds its face again.

Fire extinguishers ended up in the water overnight.

Jewish and Arab inhabitants stop in front of one of the symbols of the city, which has been sacked. 

In the early hours of the riots, young Arab Israelis completely burned down this restaurant, Uri Buri, known throughout the country.

Jews and Arabs work there together and the establishment aims to be a model of coexistence.

For Uri, the emblematic Jewish owner, it is living together that is targeted.

“None of the people here could have thought that such a thing could be possible,” he laments.

“What is happening is that the leaders of the Arab population in Acre failed to understand that there are people who are not happy with the coexistence that prevails here. They attacked my restaurant and my hotel in first because I'm kind of a symbol of that. "

Uri has two months to reopen, but it will take a lot longer to repair this damaged coexistence in a matter of hours.

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