RAMALLAH, Nov 14 (NNN-WAFA) – Illegal Israeli settlers, set fire to a mosque, north-west of Salfit, in the West Bank yesterday, and wrote anti-Islam slogans on its walls, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s Commission Against the Wall and Settlements said, in a brief statement.
The settlers poured flammable material at the mosque’s entrance, but residents intervened and prevented the fire from spreading to the entire building, the statement said. It added that, the attackers also wrote slogans “hostile” to Arabs and Muslims on the mosque’s walls.
As the usual case, the Israeli regime does not comment on the incident.
The Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, condemned the attack, calling it a “heinous crime.”
In a statement, the ministry said, the act violated international laws and conventions, protecting freedom of worship and the establishment of places of worship. It urged the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and Arab and Islamic states to take action, to “end these attacks, which defy description.”
The incidents come, amid a recent increase in settler violence, during the olive harvest, when Palestinians tend to their farmland near towns and villages.
Last week, the United Nations reported the escalation of violence by the illegal Israeli settlers against Palestinians, in the occupied West Bank, with October recording the highest number of attacks in nearly two decades.
More than 700,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, and established settlements there, which are considered illegal under international law.– NNN-WAFA
