Overview
- Local officials and AFP reporters said settlers set fire to the ablution room of Jiljiliya’s main mosque on Wednesday, leaving ceilings, walls and floors blackened by smoke.
- Hebrew graffiti found on the mosque’s exterior included slogans reading “vengeance” and a message referencing the Hilltop Youth, an informal settler group often accused of violence.
- Mayor Osama Abdullah said attackers tried to burn the main prayer hall between 2am and 3am but set the lower ablution room alight after finding the door locked.
- Palestinian civil defence teams and local residents extinguished the blaze, and Israel’s military did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the incident.
- The episode comes as the UN reports record levels of settler attacks in the West Bank, where more than 500,000 Israeli settlers live among about three million Palestinians, and raises fresh concerns about accountability and the risk of further escalation.