JERUSALEM - Suspected Jewish extremists slashed the tyres of five Palestinian-owned cars in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem overnight, a police spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

"Five vehicles were vandalised close to the Old City at the entrance to the Silwan neighbourhood, and the slogan 'price tag' written on a wall nearby," spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

"Price tag" is the expression used by Jewish extremists to refer to acts of vandalism and more serious attacks they carry out in pursuit of their hardline agenda.

Initially carried out against Palestinians in retaliation for state moves to dismantle unauthorised settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, price tag attacks have become a much broader phenomenon with racist and xenophobic overtones.

Christian holy sites and Israeli peace activists have also been targeted, and even the Israeli army.

Police caught four young Israelis red-handed on Sunday as they vandalised Christian tombstones in a Jerusalem cemetery.