A group of Israeli settlers partially set fire to two mosques located north of the West Bank city of Ramallah this Wednesday, within the framework of a new wave of attacks that also left four Palestinians injured in the town of Beita, located south of Nablus.
The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs has “strongly” condemned the burning of two mosques in Jaljulia and Mazraa al Nubani and has stated through a statement published on social networks that “this serious attack attacks places of worship and violates all international laws and conventions that guarantee the protection of sacred places.”
The ministry has pointed out that “these attacks represent a dangerous escalation and a provocation to the feelings of the Palestinian people”, before warning that “they are part of a policy directed against Islamic and Christian sacred places”, which is why it “holds the occupation authorities fully responsible for these crimes and their consequences”.
In this way, he has asked the international community to “urgently intervene to stop these violations” and “hold accountable those responsible for repeated crimes against the Palestinian people and their sacred places”, before emphasizing that the Palestinian people have the “right” to “protect and preserve their sacred places”.
Fire at the Great Mosque of Jaljulia
Palestinian security sources cited by the WAFA news agency have indicated that the settlers set fire to the Great Mosque of Jaljulia, where they caused material damage and also painted racist messages on several walls of the building.
Thus, they have stated that a group of residents have confronted the settlers when they were trying to set fire to the mosque, after which a contingent of Israeli forces agents have been deployed in the area, launching stun grenades and tear gas.
Subsequently, another group of settlers set fire to the Al Faruq mosque in Mazraa al Nubani, an incident that also resulted in material damage, without the Israeli authorities having commented so far on these attacks, which have been on the rise in recent years.
Following this, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has denounced these events and stated that they “represent organized terrorism and a dangerous escalation of aggression against the Palestinian people, their land and their sacred places”, as well as “a disregard for the feelings of Muslims”.
“These Zionist crimes reveal the extent of extremism and hatred that govern the behavior of these deranged gangs, which will find in our people and their resistance nothing more than a firm response and continuous confrontation,” said the Islamist group, as reported by the Palestinian newspaper ‘Filastin’.
In this sense, he stressed that these continued attacks “are part of the occupation’s plans to attack the Palestinian people” and added that “these plans will be destroyed by the perseverance and courage of the population and by their insistence on resisting the occupation and blocking the project of settlement, annexation and displacement.”
“The resistance in the West Bank will remain vigilant against the criminal enemy’s soldiers and settler gangs, responding to their crimes and making them pay the price for their attacks,” Hamas said. “The policies of oppression and terrorism will not be successful in breaking the will of the people or removing them from their homes,” he reiterated.
Hamas has also called on Palestinians in the West Bank to “increase all forms of resistance”, while calling on the international community to “assume its responsibilities and take serious steps to confront settler terrorism and hold occupation leaders accountable for their crimes against the Palestinian people.”
Attacks elsewhere in the West Bank
On the other hand, four Palestinians have been injured in another attack against Beita, where several vehicles and homes have suffered material damage, while another group of settlers has stolen a tractor and a water truck in the town of Atuf, located southeast of Tubas, according to local authorities.
In this context, the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has criticized the Israeli Army for the injuries suffered by a journalist on Tuesday while covering the situation in Deir abu Mashaal, also near the city of Ramallah, according to a message published on social networks.
“RSF condemns the firing of tear gas by the Israeli Army against Motasem Saqf al Hait. The Quds News Network correspondent, who was reporting from Deir abu Mashaal, near Ramallah, was injured in the foot and was evacuated by ambulance,” the organization said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) already warned on Friday that violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank has reached its historic highs in 2026, with more than a thousand attacks with victims or material damage so far this year, impacting more than 230 communities and displacing more than 2,000 Palestinians.
These types of incidents have increased since October 7, 2023, the date of the attacks against Israel led by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), although in the first nine months of that year there had already been record numbers of Palestinian deaths in these territories in two decades, since the Second Intifada.
