Israeli settlers set fire to two West Bank mosques, spray 'vengeance' graffiti on walls

The overnight attacks

Two Palestinian mosques were set ablaze within hours of each other in the early hours of Wednesday morning, in what local officials described as the latest escalation in a months-long wave of settler violence across the occupied West Bank. In Jiljiliya, roughly ten kilometres north of Ramallah, a group of Israeli settlers arrived between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m., found the main prayer-hall door locked, and instead torched the ablution room on the lower floor. The Palestinian Civil Defence, assisted by village youths, managed to contain the fire before it spread to the main sanctuary.

The settlers set fire to the ablution room, damaged the village's main mosque and wrote hostile messages on the exterior walls.

Less than ten kilometres away in al-Mazraa al-Nubani, a second group threw a Molotov cocktail at the al-Farouk Omar ibn al-Khattab mosque. Mayor Saad Dagher told AFP the attackers fled when residents emerged from their homes, and the flames affected only part of the building. He noted it was the first mosque attack in his village, following earlier vandalism against homes and farm installations.

The graffiti and the 'Hilltop Youth' signature

AFP journalists who visited the Jiljiliya site documented charred walls bearing Hebrew inscriptions: "Vengeance," "The night of the mosques," and "Greetings from the hilltop youth", a reference to a radical settler movement. The same slogans were reported by multiple outlets. In Deir Dibwan, a separate arson attempt targeted the al-Marah mosque after Maghrib prayer; a 92-year-old Palestinian-American worshipper, Yasser Saqer Rashid, told Al Jazeera a settler pointed a petrol bomb at his face through the window.

I was shocked by a settler holding a petrol bomb, pointing it at my face and clothes near the window. He wanted to burn me alive.

The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs said dozens of religious buildings have been burned or vandalised since the start of the year. The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission counted 22 separate attacks on Muslim religious sites in the recent period, according to Al Jazeera.

Israeli military response and the wider context

The Israeli army, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967, condemned the incidents and said it had opened an investigation. Two suspects fled before forces arrived, the army stated. Palestinian media reported that when residents confronted the settlers during the Jiljiliya attack, Israeli forces subsequently raided the town firing tear gas and stun grenades. No injuries were reported in the mosque fires themselves, though four Palestinians were injured in a separate settler assault south of Nablus on the same day.

The attacks landed on the same day the G7 summit in Evian issued its final declaration explicitly calling for an end to settler violence. UN data published the previous week recorded a "record" pace of settler attacks, averaging six per day. More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements deemed illegal under international law, alongside roughly three million Palestinians. Far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have openly backed settlement expansion; on Wednesday, new construction was approved for 576 housing units and a yeshiva building in Hebron without Palestinian municipal consent.

We are steadfast here and will not leave. This is our land, inherited from our ancestors, and we will remain in it until the Day of Judgement.

A pattern of targeting holy sites

The two Wednesday attacks follow an arson attempt three days earlier on the al-Noor mosque in Burqa, also near Ramallah, where worshippers were inside during the assault. Observers note that mosques have become recurrent targets as settlement activity expands. The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs called the attacks a dangerous escalation and a provocation targeting both Islamic and Christian symbols, holding Israeli authorities fully responsible and urging international intervention to protect places of worship and bring perpetrators to justice.