Settlers set fire to a mosque west of Nablus and spray racist slogans

A mosque located between the villages of Surra and Tal, southwest of Nablus city, was subjected to a terrorist attack at dawn today, Monday, when a group of settlers set fire to its main entrance. The fire caused clear material damage to the outer gate and facade before local residents were able to intervene quickly, control the flames, and prevent them from reaching the inner prayer hall.

Field sources reported that the attackers spray-painted inciting and racist slogans on the mosque's walls, including vengeful phrases associated with the extremist 'Price Tag' group. Initial inspections showed that the settlers poured flammable materials after breaking the outer door, in a deliberate attempt to cause the greatest possible destruction to the house of God.

Surveillance cameras in the vicinity of the site documented two settlers infiltrating from the direction of the 'Havat Gilad' settlement, established on citizens' lands west of Nablus, where they carried out their crime under the cover of darkness before withdrawing from the scene. Evidence suggests that the attackers tried to penetrate further into the mosque, had the fire not been extinguished early in the dawn, which prevented a larger catastrophe.

This attack comes amid a frenzied escalation of settler attacks targeting Palestinian villages and towns in various governorates of the West Bank. These attacks coincide with intensive military operations carried out by the Israeli army, which recently included widespread incursions into the town of Ya'bad, southwest of Jenin, reflecting a state of increasing security tension in the region.

For its part, the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs revealed alarming statistics indicating that more than 45 mosques in the West Bank have been targeted since last year. The ministry considered these attacks not spontaneous, but rather part of a systematic retaliatory policy led by extremist settler groups such as 'Hilltop Youth' and 'Price Tag' under the cover of an inciting political climate.

In a related context, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club indicated that the pace of arrests in the West Bank has reached unprecedented levels since October 7, 2023, with the number of detainees exceeding 23,000 Palestinians. These arrests are accompanied by systematic destruction of infrastructure and repeated attacks by settlers on Palestinian property and holy sites.

The Ministry of Endowments confirmed that more than 45 mosques have been subjected to attacks in the West Bank since last year, in the context of organized retaliatory operations.