Israeli settlers torched a mosque and sprayed it with graffiti in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, in line with Palestinian authorities, the latest in a surge of more and more brazen settler assaults towards Palestinians.
The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs stated settlers attacked the Hajjah Hamidah Mosque in Salfit in the northern West Bank, calling it a “heinous crime and a blatant assault on the feelings of Muslims.”
“The attack resulted in parts of the mosque being set on fire and defaced with racist graffiti by settler gangs, who carry out daily assaults on Islamic holy sites and citizens’ properties amid a systematic escalation in both the frequency and nature of these violations,” the ministry assertion stated.
Images shared by the ministry confirmed writing in Hebrew on the outside of the mosque saying, “Mohammed is a pig,” a reference to Islam’s prophet, and “Not afraid of Avi Bluth.” Bluth is the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commander in the West Bank, who issued a press release on Wednesday condemning the settler assaults and calling the perpetrators an “anarchist fringe youth.”
Images confirmed components of the inside broken by fireplace, with a pile of charred particles scattered throughout the bottom. The partitions seem blackened with smoke and warmth marks, and the glass of the home windows smashed.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the attack in a press release, saying it “holds the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for this crime and its consequences.”
In a press release to NCS, the IDF acknowledged the attack, saying it dispatched forces to the scene to “review the incident and conduct scans” and transferred the case to the Israel Police for additional processing. The IDF stated “no suspects were identified.”
Some 700,000 Jewish settlers dwell in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory the Palestinians need for a future state. Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are thought of unlawful in line with worldwide regulation.
Settler assaults on Palestinians and their properties have surged this 12 months, significantly throughout the olive harvest season in October and November. A United Nations report launched final week discovered that Israeli settlers launched at least 264 attacks in October, the biggest quantity because the UN started monitoring incidents in 2006. The repeated assaults have marred this 12 months’s olive harvest.
On Tuesday, dozens of Israeli settlers launched a significant arson attack towards an agricultural space in the northern West Bank village of Beit Lid, setting fireplace to a a brand new dairy manufacturing unit and torching automobiles and tents in a close-by Bedouin group.
Footage obtained by NCS confirmed the settlers pouring gasoline on automobiles and vans earlier than setting the automobiles alight. The video confirmed smoke engulfing the realm, with Palestinian ladies wailing as males carry extinguishers and water buckets in a scramble to douse the fires.
NCS visited the location of the attack and noticed charred automobiles, and the harm left across the Bedouin group.
Monjed Aljuneidi, an government of Al-Juneidi Dairy and Food Company stated the scene was “indescribable.” He recalled dozens of settlers scaling the manufacturing unit fences from a number of instructions.
“I think it was just a message to scare us, to scare our employees… to try to enforce their reality on the ground… (but) we will continue operations, they can’t stop us,” he stated.
In the close by Bedouin group of Deir Sharaf, residents advised NCS at the very least 4 Palestinians have been injured and required hospitalization from the attack. They stated settlers beat them and killed 4 of their sheep.
Fifteen-year-old Nabil Dueis was tending to his livestock when the settlers rampaged the realm.
“It was terrifying, especially for the women and children…I was defensless against 100 of them…we need protection from the state” he advised NCS.
According to the IDF, the settlers then attacked Israeli troopers and broken and Israeli navy automobile.
Israeli Police initially stated it had arrested 4 suspects for questioning following what it known as “extreme violence.” on the web site. But by Wednesday night, police stated they’d launched three of the suspects.
The Palestinian overseas ministry stated the sequence of assaults “affirms the increasing terrorism and crimes of the settlers, carried out with the direct support of the occupation government, as part of a systematic and widespread policy aimed at undermining the rights of the Palestinian people.”
Palestinian officers known as on worldwide and Islamic establishments to take motion to make sure accountability.