Settlers Burn Mosques as Israel Raids Across the West Bank
Israeli settlers set fire to two mosques and scrawled “revenge” graffiti in the occupied West Bank, in rampages that accompanied a wide Israeli military operation across the territory. Troops raided some twenty towns, demolishing homes and detaining dozens, days after a deadly gun battle near Nablus. A group of former Israeli generals appealed to President Trump to press Mr Netanyahu to curb the settler violence.
The mosque burnings, one in the village of Qusra, are the latest in a surge of settler attacks that has accompanied the wider regional war, and which rights groups say goes largely unpunished. The Israeli military cast its raids as a hunt for those behind Friday’s shooting, while Palestinians condemned them as collective punishment. Israel separately released some sixty Gazans, reportedly its largest single wartime batch. The violence deepens fears that the West Bank could become a third front alongside Gaza and Iran. Watch for further raids and any move to rein in the settlers.