Palestinians say Israeli settlers torch 2 mosques in West Bank

Palestinian officials said Israeli settlers set fire to two mosques in the occupied West Bank overnight Sunday, after this week’s deadly clashes in the territory left six people dead.

Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged since the Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Abdel Azim Wadi, mayor of the town of Qusra, south of the city of Nablus, told AFP that settlers torched a mosque under construction in the southern part of the town.

“The fire destroyed the mosque’s entrance and even damaged its stonework,” Wadi said.

He added that the attackers spray-painted Hebrew graffiti on the mosque’s walls, including the word “revenge”.

The Israeli military said troops were dispatched to the outskirts of Qusra after receiving a report that a mosque had been set ablaze.

“The soldiers searched for suspects who had fled prior to their arrival and identified signs of arson and graffiti at the scene,” it said, adding that Israeli police would investigate and collect evidence.

In a separate incident, Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque in the village of Kour, near Tulkarem, and sprayed racist slogans on its walls, according to the Palestinian ministry of endowments and religious affairs.

The ministry said that “groups of settlers burned a mosque in the village of Kour in Tulkarem governorate and wrote racist slogans on its walls”.

On Friday, deadly clashes broke out between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the village of Tell that left four Palestinians and two Israelis dead.

The Israeli military subsequently raided the city of Nablus and several nearby towns, announcing the arrest of dozens of Palestinians as it launched what it described as a “counter-terrorism” operation in the West Bank.

On Saturday, the city had largely ground to a halt, with long queues of vehicles forming at petrol stations as fuel supplies dwindled, an AFP journalist reported.

Since the start of the Gaza war, at least 1,097 Palestinians, including militants, have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers, according to Palestinian figures.

Official Israeli data show that at least 48 Israelis, both civilians and members of the security forces, have been killed in attacks by Palestinians or during Israeli military operations.

Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, around three million Palestinians live in the West Bank alongside more than 500,000 Israelis residing in settlements that are illegal under international law.