Israelis have desecrated the tomb of a Palestinian by launching a "price tag" attack against it near the coastal city of Haifa.

The Israelis vandalized the grave at the Izzedine al-Qassam cemetery in Nesher, Israeli police said on Friday.

"Graffiti was found sprawled on and around a grave in the al-Qassam cemetery in Nesher," north of Haifa, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.

The attackers spray-painted the words "price tag", as well as the names of US Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is the senior peace negotiator with the Palestinian Authority (PA), said the spokeswoman.

The United Nations has recorded "399 attacks” of this kind by Israel’s illegal settlers, which have “resulted in Palestinian injuries or property damage."

On Tuesday, Israelis attacked a mosque in the small town of Fureidis, around 27 kilometers (16 miles) from Haifa.

Israeli settlers regularly launch price tag attacks against Palestinians.

Price tag attacks are acts of vandalism and violence against Palestinians and their property as well as Islamic holy sites.

The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.