West Bank mosques burn after deadly clash with Israeli settlers

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank early on Sunday, setting fire to two mosques and scrawling graffiti on buildings, Palestinian officials said.

On Friday, four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers - one of them acting as a local security coordinator - had been killed when a crowd of Israeli settlers made an incursion around the Palestinian village of Tal, southwest of Nablus.

Villagers came out of their homes to confront the settlers, officials said. The subsequent shootout joined a growing series of clashes involving settlers in which dozens of Palestinians have been killed this year and hundreds wounded, according to figures from the U.N. and the Palestinian Authority.

Abdel Azim Wadi, head of the village council in Qusra, southeast of Nablus, said settlers had torched a newly completed mosque in his village early on Sunday.

He said they sprayed slogans in Hebrew on the walls, with messages including 'Jewish revenge' and the name of one of the Israelis killed near Tal.

"The village has faced repeated attacks since 2011, and these attacks have increased since the war," he told Reuters by telephone.

JEWISH SETTLEMENTS WIDELY CONSIDERED ILLEGAL

Most countries and United Nations bodies consider Jewish settlements in the West Bank illegal, a position Israel rejects, while the Palestinians seek to establish an independent state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Since Israel launched a war against Gaza's Palestinian Hamas rulers in October 2023, after Gaza militants killed more than 1,000 Israelis, settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have increased sharply.

The Israeli military said troops sent to Qusra, which sits near several large Israeli settlements, had found graffiti and signs of arson and were searching for suspects. It said police officers would be sent to collect evidence.

"The security forces strongly condemn incidents of this kind, including harm to religious sites, and will continue to act decisively to maintain security and public order in the area," the military said.

Palestinian officials said settlers had also tried to burn a mosque near Kour, southeast of the city of Tulkarm.

Farid Jiyousi, a member of the village council, said three settlers had tried to set the mosque ablaze at dawn but worshippers had put out the fire before it reached the main area of the mosque.

"This is the first attack our village has experienced," he said, adding that the attackers had also sprayed graffiti in Hebrew on the mosque walls.

Following Friday's incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an election in October, ordered a reinforcement of troops in the area and said more settlements would be authorised to increase security.

Right-wing politicians in his government, including the hardline finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, have called for accelerated moves to take over the West Bank, which was occupied by Israel following the 1967 Middle East war.

-Ali Sawafta reported from Ramallah; additional reporting by Steve Scheer in Jerusalem; writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Kevin Liffey/Reuters