(Reuters) – Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian residents said on Friday, and video showed “Revenge”, “Death to Arabs” and other slogans had been spray-painted in Hebrew on the building’s facade.
Black burn marks were visible at the entrance to the Muslim holy site in the northern West Bank village of Marda. The fire was put out before it could spread much further.
Israeli police said they were collecting testimonies and evidence at the scene.
Nasfat al-Khufash, head of the Marda village council, said: “On Friday, Marda awoke to a systematic terror attack by a group of settlers who set fire to Bir al-Walideen mosque.”
“These attacks by settler groups are continuous and systematic,” he said.
The Israeli police and Shin Bet security services said in a joint statement: “We see this incident as extremely serious and will act resolutely to bring the perpetrators to justice for rigorous trial.”
The Palestinian Authority foreign ministry assailed the attack as the latest in a series of violations and crimes by Israeli settlers and appealed to the United Nations Security Council for help protecting Palestinians.
The U.N. says more than 700,000 Israelis live among 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in 1967. Most countries deem Israeli settlements built on the captured land to be illegal.
Israel disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land.
Violence has surged across the West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack led by Hamas militants on southern Israel, which triggered Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and a wider conflict on several fronts.
(Reporting by Ali Saftawi and Nuha Sharaf; Writing by Howard Goller, Editing by Timothy Heritage)