Israeli settlers set fire to West Bank mosques after deadly clash

• Israeli settlers set fire to mosques and vandalised Palestinian villages in the West Bank following a deadly clash that killed four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers.
• The Israeli military condemned the attacks but launched a security operation, while Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, pushed for stronger actions and West Bank annexation.
• The violence has drawn international concern, including from the Pope, amid ongoing disputes over settlements and Palestinian statehood aspirations.

QUSRA, West Bank – Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank early on July 26, setting fire to two mosques and scrawling graffiti on buildings, Palestinian officials said.

The attacks followed an incident on July 24 when four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers – one of them acting as a security coordinator for a nearby Israeli settlement – were killed when a crowd of Israeli settlers, some armed, approached the Palestinian village of Tal, south-west of Nablus.

During the incident, villagers came out of their homes to confront the settlers and a stand-off ensued, with video appearing to show one of the Palestinians grabbing a settler’s weapon. Palestinian local authorities say the settlers provoked the violence.

The Israeli military said shots were fired by both sides.

The incident was the latest in a growing series of clashes involving settlers in which dozens of Palestinians have been killed in 2026 and hundreds wounded, according to figures from the UN and the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an election in October, ordered a major security operation against what he described as terrorism against Israeli civilians, reinforcing units in the West Bank and cancelling leave.

Members of his government, including far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, have called for annexation of the West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

In an apparent reaction to the deaths of the Israelis, settlers carried out a series of attacks on Palestinian villages in different areas of the West Bank in the early hours of the morning, Palestinian officials said.

Abdel Azim Wadi, head of the village council in Qusra, south-east of Nablus, said settlers had torched a newly completed mosque in his village early on July 26.

“The mosque was in its final stage and was ready to receive worshippers. It had already been furnished with couches. They set it on fire and spray-painted Hebrew slogans on its walls,” he told Reuters by telephone.

Among the graffiti were messages including “Jewish revenge” and the name of one of the Israelis killed near Tal.

Israeli settlements widely considered illegal

The Palestinian Authority, which has responsibility for the section of the West Bank where the July 24 shootings took place, said the incident was part of a generalised assault on Palestinians.

“Israeli state-backed settler terrorism is intensifying into systematic pogroms across the occupied West Bank,” the Palestinian Prime Minister’s office said in a statement on the social media platform X.

The Israeli military said troops sent to Qusra, which sits near several large Israeli settlements, had found graffiti and signs of arson and were searching for suspects. It said police officers would be sent to collect evidence.

“The security forces strongly condemn incidents of this kind, including harm to religious sites, and will continue to act decisively to maintain security and public order in the area,” the military said.

In separate incidents, Palestinian officials said settlers had also tried to burn a mosque near Kour, south-east of the city of Tulkarm, and attacked Palestinian workers at a stone-cutting facility in the town of Kafr Malik, near Ramallah.

Farid Jiyousi, a member of the village council, said three settlers tried to set the mosque ablaze at dawn, but worshippers put out the fire before it reached the main area of the mosque.

“This is the first attack our village has experienced,” he said, adding that the attackers had also sprayed graffiti in Hebrew on the mosque walls.

As part of a security clampdown across the West Bank over the weekend, Israeli forces arrested around 60 Palestinians from night-time on July 25, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which tracks Palestinians in Israeli custody.

Most countries and United Nations bodies consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal, a position Israel rejects.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank as the core of a future independent state. Israel cites biblical and historical ties to the land. Netanyahu’s government, which opposes Palestinian statehood, has expanded settlement there at a rapid rate.

On July 26, Pope Leo said he was following the worsening violence with deep concern and called for negotiations to reach “a just political solution”.

He also called for a rejection of actions “that violate the respect and status quo of the holy sites of every religious faith”. REUTERS