Israeli settlers torch West Bank mosque

The torching of the mosque comes after the shooting of a Palestinian protester and the stabbing deaths of two Israelis this week

The scene at the mosque in the village of Al-Mughayir on Wednesday morning (MEE/Fadi Arouri)

MEE and agencies

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Israeli settlers torched a mosque near the West Bank town of Ramallah early Wednesday, Palestinian security officials said, as violence intensified in the occupied territory.

"The settlers set fire to the whole of the first floor of the mosque" in the village of Al-Mughayir, near the Shilo settlement, a security official said.

Another mosque in the same village was set ablaze in a similar attack in 2012.

Hardline Jewish settlers frequently accompany their revenge attacks with graffiti bearing the legend "price tag". There were mixed reports about whether graffiti had been scrawled in Wednesday's attack. Eyewitnesses told the Anadolu Agency that "Death to Arabs" and other anti-Arab slogans had been scrawled on the mosque's walls, but Palestinian security officials AFP the perpetrators had not used graffiti.

A mosque in a village near Ramallah on Wednesday (MEE/Fadi Arouri)

A settler and an Israeli soldier were killed in separate Palestinian knife attacks in the West Bank and Tel Aviv on Monday.

On Tuesday, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian protester during clashes in the southern West Bank.

Since the current round of violence began five months ago, at least 17 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to an AFP count.

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