Israeli settlers torched West Bank mosque: Palestinian official

JILJILIYA, Palestine Territories: Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque in a West Bank village on Wednesday, the local mayor said, while AFP journalists at the site saw signs of arson and vandalism.

The incident comes amid an increase in attacks against Palestinian communities by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in 2023.

Osama Abdullah, head of the village council in Jiljiliya, north of Ramallah, told AFP that “settlers set fire to the ablution room, caused damage to the village’s main mosque, and scrawled hostile slogans on the outer walls”.

Israel’s military did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

AFP journalists who visited the mosque on Wednesday reported that the ceiling, walls and floors were blackened by smoke and flames.

They said graffiti in Hebrew had been scrawled on the walls, including some reading “vengeance” and “hi from the Hilltop Youth”.

The Hilltop Youth are a group of Israelis in the West Bank who are regularly accused of violence towards Palestinians they seek to evict from areas they wish to take over.

Mayor Abdullah said settlers arrived to burn down the mosque between 2am and 3am but found its door was locked, so instead set fire to a room dedicated to ablutions on a lower floor.

He said Palestinian civil defence crews, along with young men from the village and neighbouring areas, extinguished the blaze.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the territory, excluding east Jerusalem, among some three million Palestinians.

Settlements, which are illegal under international law, have sprouted all over the West Bank since the right-wing government of Netanyahu took office, which contains many pro-settlement ministers in its ranks.

The United Nations recently warned that settler violence in the West Bank has reached record levels, with an average of six attacks daily causing casualties or damage.

Locals allege that Israelis act outside the law with impunity.