RAMALLAH: Israeli settlers set fire overnight to a mosque in a village in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian official said on Sunday, as a journalist saw the structure's entrance scorched and Hebrew graffiti sprayed on its walls. The incident came during a period of increased attacks against Palestinian communities by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in 2023.
More than two dozen settlers, some masked, attacked the Al Taqwa Mosque in the village of Al Tuwani during the night and set it on fire, Mohammed Rabie, head of the village council, said. The settlers also set fire to two houses and a dairy factory, he said, adding that the attackers spray-painted Hebrew graffiti on the walls of the mosque. Rabie said the settlers fled after villagers emerged from their homes, adding that local volunteers managed to extinguish the flames before they spread further.
Photographs showed a child and an elderly man inspecting the charred entrance and windows of the mosque, where part of a prayer carpet had also been burned. Rabie said the dairy factory, run by women from the Masafer Yatta community, suffered extensive damage. — AFP
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