Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages in the occupied northern West Bank overnight, setting fire to two mosques and spray-painting racist slogans on the walls of buildings, Palestinian officials said.
In Qusra, south of Nablus, Jewish settlers torched a mosque that was still under construction, the head of the village council said.
The Israeli military said its soldiers arrived in Qusra following a report, searched for suspects who had fled before they got there, and found signs of arson and graffiti at the scene.
A second attack took place in the village of Kour, near Tulkarem, where a mosque was targeted with arson and racist graffiti sprayed on its walls, according to Palestinian authorities.
Friday's deadly clashes
On Friday, four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed during clashes in the Palestinian village of Tal, near Nablus. The clashes began after a group of Israeli settlers entered the village, southwest of Nablus.
Following the incident, Israel announced it was planning a large-scale operation in the northern West Bank, focused primarily on the Nablus area.
A surge in settler violence
The United Nations has systematically reported a sharp rise in settler violence since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israeli NGO Peace Now has recorded that, since taking office, the Netanyahu government has approved the establishment of 102 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian territory that has been under Israeli occupation since 1967 and where around 500,000 settlers live alongside three million Palestinians.
Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law.
At least 1,094 Palestinians, both fighters and civilians, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or Israeli settlers in the West Bank since October 2023.
This escalation in violence in recent years has come alongside a proliferation of illegal Jewish settlements, since the settlement of Palestinian territory is one of the cornerstones of the Netanyahu government's policy, with many of its members making no secret of their desire to annex the West Bank.
Source: CNA
