Israeli settlers have set fire to two mosques in the occupied West Bank, as well as cars and agricultural land, Palestinian officials say – the latest escalation after a clash that killed six people two days earlier.
The attack came hours after nightfall in the villages of Qusra and Kour. In Qusra, the mayor, Abdul Azim Wadi, said settlers had set fire to a mosque that was under construction. “They spray-painted the word ‘revenge’ on the walls,” he said. On the floor of another mosque in Kour, slogans were sprayed and flames left blackened walls.
“Four Palestinians and two Israelis were killed in a clash, followed by settler arson attacks on mosques.”
The arson was the most visible sign yet of a violent chain reaction that began on Friday in the northern village of Tal. There, at least four Palestinians and two Israelis were killed in what the Israeli military described as a terror attack. But witnesses gave a different account. Ahmed Zeidan, an eyewitness in Tal, told the BBC that locals had rushed to confront about 30 settlers who were attacking Palestinian homes. Hand-to-hand clashes broke out while Israeli soldiers were present, he said.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops responded to reports that hikers were being attacked. According to the military, a security guard from a nearby settler outpost had his gun stolen by a Palestinian, who used it to kill the guard. Soldiers then “eliminated the terrorist” – one of four members of the same family killed in the exchange of fire, according to the head of the army’s central command, Maj Gen Avi Bluth. A second Israeli, a soldier, was also killed.
Since that incident, Palestinian officials say, villages across the West Bank have been targeted in multiple settler attacks. The IDF has carried out raids and arrested dozens of Palestinians in what it calls a “counter-terrorism” operation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to take “powerful action”, including the possible demolition of homes belonging to two of the Palestinians allegedly involved in the Tal shooting.
The violence comes against a backdrop of rising tensions. The United Nations says 1,114 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, the vast majority by the IDF, and at least 35 of those deaths involved settlers. Forty-one Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.
International condemnation of settler attacks has mounted, but there has been little sign of a reversal. The Israeli military said it had sent troops to Qusra and that police would investigate and collect evidence. But for villagers like Abdul Azim Wadi, the question remains: will anyone stop the arson and bloodshed?