Jewish settlers torch mosque in West Bank

A group of Jewish settlers on Wednesday morning torched a mosque near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, Anadolu news agency reported.

The news agency also reported that the Jewish settlers sprayed anti-Arab slogans on the walls of the mosque.

“The settlers stormed Al-Jabaa village at 4am and torched Al-Huda Mosque,” the head of the village’s council, Noman Hamdan, told Anadolu.

“The fire caused considerable damage to the mosque before it was put out by the local residents,” he said.

“The settlers also sprayed racist phrases against Arabs and Muslims, including ‘death to Arabs!’ on the mosque’s walls,” Hamdan added.

Several attacks, called “price-tagging”, of Jewish settlers targeting Muslim mosques and cemeteries and even private property such as cars, have recently been reported in areas across Israel and the occupied West Bank.

“Price-tagging” refers to a strategy adopted by extremist Jewish settlers who attack Palestinians and their property in retaliation for being driven out from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Such attacks have recently increased in in Israel and the West Bank.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said that the Israeli police received a note about the blaze and that police staff arrived at the scene later on in order to write a report and start an investigation into the incident.