Israeli settlers have attacked two mosques, burned vehicles and set fire to agricultural land in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say, in a wave of violence following a deadly confrontation that killed six people. The attacks on mosques in the villages of Qusra and Kour, both located in the northern West Bank, took place overnight and included arson, vandalism, theft and racist graffiti. Among the phrases spray-painted on walls were the word "revenge" and "the blood of Jews is not cheap," written in Hebrew, along with Stars of David.
The violence comes two days after a clash near the village of Tal, close to Nablus, in which four Palestinians and two Israelis were killed — an incident that has sharply escalated tensions across the territory. Both sides have accused the other of provoking that confrontation. At the mosque in Qusra, which was still under construction, surveillance footage reviewed by the Associated Press showed three people in civilian clothing causing a large explosion at the entrance before dawn. The mayor of Qusra said the fire destroyed the mosque's entrance and damaged its masonry. A 64-year-old local resident told AP he had called the police after noticing the blaze, but that soldiers arrived, looked, and left. The mosque in the village of Kour, near Tulkarem, suffered damage to its door and smoke damage to the ceiling. Israeli authorities said troops were dispatched to both sites and that police would investigate; Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that two Israelis had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in one of the attacks.
The broader context is one of sharply rising settler violence. Since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza, attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have intensified dramatically. The UN's humanitarian office has recorded more than a thousand settler incidents this year alone — an average of six per day. Israel has built hundreds of settlements housing around 700,000 Jews across the West Bank and East Jerusalem since it occupied those territories in the 1967 Middle East war; an estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the Tal killings by vowing "powerful action," including possible demolition of homes belonging to Palestinians allegedly involved. He also announced plans to accelerate the legalisation of farm outposts in the West Bank — a move critics say rewards settler expansion at a moment of crisis. New outposts have already appeared near the village of Sarra. The Israeli military launched what it called a "counter-terrorism" operation over the weekend, arresting more than 130 people, and Palestinian workers have been temporarily barred from working in Israeli settlements amid security concerns.
The attacks have drawn fresh international condemnation. Human rights organisations argue that a dual legal system — under which Israeli settlers in the West Bank are governed by Israeli civil law while Palestinians fall under military jurisdiction — creates conditions of systemic inequality. The UN's human rights chief, Volker Türk, has previously described Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank as resembling apartheid, a characterisation Israel firmly rejects. The cycle of violence shows little sign of abating: since October 2023, Palestinian health authorities have recorded over 1,000 Palestinian deaths at the hands of soldiers or settlers, while Israeli officials say at least 41 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or military operations in the territory.