RAMALLAH, Palestine

Illegal Israeli settlers set fire early Thursday to the entrance of a mosque in the village of Duma, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, and spray-painted Hebrew slogans on its walls, according to Palestinian sources.

Anti-settlement activist Suleiman Dawabsheh told Anadolu 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 crews from the Palestinian Civil Defense before it had a chance to spread inside the building, he added.

Dawabsheh said the blaze damaged the mosque’s entrance, while smoke spread inside the prayer hall, causing damage to interior facades and prayer carpets.

He added that settlers wrote Hebrew slogans on the mosque’s exterior walls.

The Palestinian Awqaf and Religious Affairs Ministry decried 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 was “an attempt to desecrate Islamic holy sites during Ramadan.”

Since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza on Oct. 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 wounded about 11,700 others in the West Bank, in addition to arresting around 22,000 people, according to official Palestinian data.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul