Palestinian official says settlers torched West Bank mosque and factory

A Palestinian official said Israeli settlers set fire overnight to a mosque in the occupied West Bank village of Al-Tuwani. An AFP journalist saw the entrance of the mosque scorched and Hebrew graffiti on its walls.

Mohammed Rabie, head of the village council, said more than two dozen settlers, some of them masked, attacked Al-Taqwa mosque during the night and set it on fire. He said the settlers also set fire to two houses and a dairy factory, and sprayed Hebrew graffiti on the mosque walls.

Rabie said the settlers fled after villagers came out of their homes. He said local volunteers put out the flames before they spread further. AFP 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. He said the attack did not cause deaths.

Israeli police said officers were deployed to the village after a report of suspects causing damage at the site, including a vehicle that was set on fire, damage to the door of a prayer structure and graffiti on walls. Police said the investigation was still ongoing.

Palestinian activist Osama Makhamra said the attack happened in full view of the Israeli army, noting that an Israeli military watchtower stands near the mosque. Rabie said Israeli army, police and fire service personnel arrived about half an hour after the attack and inspected the damage.

The Palestinian religious affairs ministry condemned the attack. In a statement, it called the arson a terrorist act and accused Israel's extremist occupation government of encouraging settler violence to displace Palestinians from Masafer Yatta and turn the conflict into a religious war.

The incident came during a period of increased settler attacks against Palestinian communities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in 2023. In a recent report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank had reached unprecedented levels, averaging six attacks per day that caused casualties or property damage.

Excluding East Jerusalem, around three million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank alongside more than 500,000 Israelis in settlements considered illegal under international law. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.