An Israeli army military jeep is stationed alongside Israeli settlers near the area where Israeli bulldozers are demolishing Palestinian-owned buildings, citing the lack of a building permit, on the outskirts of Birzeit, north of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank on August 31, 2026. AFP
Local sources told WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, that colonists set fire to a room near the Nur Al-Din Zanki Mosque after failing to break down its doors and spray-painting racist slogans at the site.
The Ministry of Religious Endowments and Affairs condemned the criminal attack, describing the targeting of mosques and places of worship as a dangerous and systematic escalation aimed at provoking Muslims and violating the sanctity of religious sites protected under international law.
For his part, Sheikh Nasser Al-Salman, director general of the Nablus Endowments, said the attempted arson and racist graffiti reflected the extent of the ongoing incitement against Palestinian holy sites.
He affirmed that the mosque would remain vibrant with its worshippers and their faith-based message, and that such heinous attacks would not undermine Palestinians' attachment to their land and holy places.
The ministry called on international and human rights organizations to assume their responsibilities in protecting places of worship and to put an end to these repeated attacks on Palestinian villages and towns.
According to an analytical assessment published by the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC), a Palestinian government body affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, and reported by WAFA, settlers were responsible for 799 of the documented fires, or 88.8 percent, while 101 fires, or 11.2 percent, were attributed to the Israeli military.
The number of fires increased steadily during the period covered by the assessment, rising from 217 in 2023 to 264 in 2024 and 307 in 2025. A further 112 fires were recorded between the beginning of 2026 and 10 July.
The Nablus, Ramallah, and Al-Bireh governorates accounted for 552 of the 900 incidents, or 61.3 percent of the total.
The commission described settler arson as one of the most prominent tools of Israeli terrorism against Palestinians, saying the repeated attacks reflected an organized and systematic pattern targeting Palestinian security, property, and livelihoods.
Israel captured the West Bank in its 1967 war against Arab countries, carrying out violent and systematic policies to thwart the Palestinian pursuit of an independent state along the 4 June 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Since the outbreak of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, the Israeli violence against three million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has intensified.
According to Palestinian health ministry data, at least 1,103 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli occupation army or settlers in the West Bank since then, including dozens of children.
Over the past five decades, Tel Aviv has constructed hundreds of settlements in the occupied territories. Today, more than 500,000 armed and dangerous Israeli settlers terrorise three million Palestinians with arson attacks on homes, burning of crops, and destruction of property daily.
In February, a report released by the UN Human Rights Office said Israel’s increased attacks and forcible transfers of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank raise concerns of “ethnic cleansing,” warning that some actions could amount to “genocide” if intent to destroy a group is established.
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