West Bank mosque comes under arson attack
February 25, 2015
On Wednesday, Israeli police began investigating the circumstances surrounding an attack in the West Bank village of Al-Jaba'ah, which lies southwest of Bethlehem.
A burning object was reportedly thrown through the windows of the village's mosque overnight, setting it on fire. Residents reacted quickly to the blaze, extinguishing it before it inflicted major damage on the building. No injuries were reported.
Local residents suspected that Israelis were behind the fire, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA. According to the village's mayor, Noman Hamdan, the unidentified assailants scrawled "Revenge for the Land of Zion" and "Price Tag" in Hebrew on the mosque's walls.
Israeli settlers have been the main suspects behind several mosque burnings in recent years. In November, a Muslim house of worship was set on fire near the city of Ramallah.
Wednesday's attack came less than a day after the shooting of a 19-year-old man by Israeli soldiers who were trying to disperse crowds at the West Bank's Deheishe Palestinian refugee camp. Camp residents had been pelting the troops with stones and firebombs when the shooting occurred.
Tensions have been particularly high over the past year after failed US-brokered talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials, aggravated still further by the Israeli government showing no sign of halting controversial settlement plans. Last summer, anger over the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three Israeli teens in the region escalated into a nearly two-month war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.
kms/sms (Reuters, dpa)