Israeli settlers burn mosque as West Bank violence escalates
Israeli settlers extended a wave of attacks in the West Bank, drawing rare condemnation from authorities and concern from the U.S. over the escalating violence.
Israeli settlers extended a wave of attacks in the West Bank, burning a mosque on Thursday and setting upon Israeli troops during a separate incident earlier in the week, drawing rare condemnation from authorities and concern from Washington over the escalating violence.
The Palestinian religious affairs ministry shared photographs of the aftermath of the mosque attack on social media, showing damage to a prayer hall where windows appeared to be blown out and ash was strewn over part of the floor. Hateful messages promising revenge were spray painted in Hebrew on the outside of the building, the photographs showed.
The attack early Thursday in the small Palestinian town of Deir Istiya followed another incident on Tuesday, when a mob of dozens of masked Israeli settlers assaulted Palestinians near the city of Nablus and set property ablaze before fleeing to an industrial zone where they attacked soldiers who were operating in the area. Four Israeli suspects were arrested, the Israel Police said.
Tuesday’s incident elicited rare public rebukes by Israeli military leaders and the head of the main settler association, the Yesha Council. Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Wednesday that he strongly condemned attacks by Israeli citizens against both Palestinians and Israelis, calling them a red line that disrupts the mission of his forces.
“We are determined to stop this phenomenon and will act decisively until justice is served," Zamir said.
The United Nations has warned of an alarming surge in attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, with the number of incidents rising every year for almost a decade. This year, the U.N.’s humanitarian office, OCHA, has recorded more than 1,400 settler attacks that resulted in casualties or property damage.
Violence typically spikes around October, the start of the olive harvest season, which has become a flashpoint in the conflict with settlers increasingly seeking to disrupt it. OCHA said last week it recorded 264 attacks in October, most of them directly linked to the harvest.
Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, who heads the Israeli military command that oversees the West Bank, said the attacks by what he called “anarchist fringe youth" were unacceptable and extremely serious. He said the directive to his troops is clear to “not stand idly by, and do everything in your power to prevent any act of nationalist crime."
Graffiti sprayed outside the mosque on Thursday warned: “We are not afraid of Avi Bluth."
Israeli officials have expressed concern in recent weeks over the escalating violence. Israel’s military is the main body overseeing security in the West Bank, home to some 3 million Palestinians and about 500,000 Israeli settlers. Much of the international community considers the Israeli settlements unlawful.
Settlers say the recent violence is perpetrated by a small group of extremist youth who don’t represent their movement, which aims to increase the Jewish population of the West Bank and ultimately bring it under Israeli sovereignty.
At the same time, an increasingly outspoken far-right contingent in the West Bank has criticized authorities when they take action against Israelis, at times warning of retaliation.
Asked about the violence, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that the U.S. was concerned but didn’t expect it to derail efforts toward peace in the Gaza Strip.
“Certainly there’s some concern about events in the West Bank spilling over and creating an effect that could undermine what we’re doing in Gaza," Rubio told reporters while in Canada for a Group of Seven meeting. “We don’t expect it to. We’ll do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen," he said.
Write to Feliz Solomon at feliz.solomon@wsj.com
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