According to Palestinian sources, anti-colonial activist Suleiman Dawabsheh told Anadolu Agency that a group of settlers infiltrated the village before dawn and set fire to the mosque.
Illegal Israeli settlers early Thursday set fire to the entrance of a mosque in the village of Duma, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, and scrawled slogans in Hebrew on its walls.
According to Palestinian sources, anti-colonial activist Suleiman Dawabsheh told Anadolu Agency that a group of settlers infiltrated the village before dawn and set fire to the mosque.
Residents quickly extinguished the flames with the help of teams from the Palestinian Civil Defense before they could spread inside the building, he informed.
Dawabsheh said the flames damaged the entrance to the mosque, while smoke spread inside the prayer hall, causing damage to the interior facades and prayer rugs.
He added that settlers wrote slogans in Hebrew on the outer walls of the mosque.
The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments condemned what it described as a growing number of attempts to burn mosques in the occupied West Bank during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
In a statement, the ministry said the attack on the mosque is "an attempt to desecrate Islamic holy sites during Ramadan."
Since the start of Israel's genocide in Gaza on October 8, 2023, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank have intensified, leaving 42 Palestinians dead, according to official Palestinian figures.
Overall, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 1,125 Palestinians and injured about 11,700 others in the West Bank, in addition to arresting about 22,000 people, according to official Palestinian data.
