Israeli settlers set fire to mosque in occupied West Bank: Palestinian authorities

Israeli settlers set a mosque on fire in a village in the occupied West Bank overnight, also damaging two homes and a dairy factory. Palestinian authorities have strongly condemned the incident, calling it an organized attack.

According to media reports, the head of the village council of Al-Tuwani, Mohammed Rabie, said that more than two dozen settlers, including some masked ones, entered the Al-Taqwa mosque at night and set it on fire. The attackers also set fire to two residential homes and a dairy factory run by women, and wrote slogans in Hebrew on the mosque's walls.

He said that the villagers came out of their homes, prompting the settlers to flee, while local volunteers quickly put out the fire before it spread further. Eyewitnesses said that the mosque's entrance, windows, and part of the prayer area were damaged by the fire, while the dairy factory was also severely damaged. Mohammed Rabie said that fortunately, no one was injured in the attack.

On the other hand, the Israeli police said that after receiving a report of a car, a place of worship, and other property being damaged and graffiti being drawn on walls in the village, police officers arrived at the scene and are investigating the incident.

Palestinian activist Osama Al-Mukhimmer accused that the attack took place in the presence of the Israeli army, while Mohammed Rabie said that Israeli army, police, and fire brigade personnel arrived in the village about half an hour later and assessed the damage.

The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs condemned the attack, calling it a "full-fledged terrorist act", and accused the Israeli extremist occupation government of encouraging settler violence to expel Palestinians from the area of Yatta.

According to a recent report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there has been an unusual increase in violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, with an average of six attacks per day that result in injury or property damage.