Settlers set fire to a mosque and two houses in the village of Tuwana in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the southern West Bank, Saturday night. The attack caused extensive damage to the targeted buildings and also set fire to a civilian vehicle.
Tuwana Village Council Mayor, Muhammad Raba’i, said settlers from the Havat Ma’on outpost stormed the village and set fire to two houses owned by Kamal Musa Raba’i and Mahmoud Salman Raba’i, in addition to setting fire to a vehicle belonging to Hisham al-Harini.
The settlers, under the protection of the Israeli army, also set fire to the Tuwana Mosque using flammable materials, causing the fire to spread to a large area of the surrounding property.
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Religious Endowments and Affairs condemned the arson attack on the mosque, calling it a “dangerous escalation and a crossing of all red lines.” The Ministry emphasized that targeting places of worship constitutes an attack on all religious and humanitarian values.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry stated the burning of the Al-Tuwana Mosque was a “fully-fledged act of terrorism,” considering it part of a policy aimed at displacing the residents of Masafer Yatta, with the “support and green light of the extremist occupation government.”
The Ministry held the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the crime and its repercussions, calling on the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and international human rights organizations to intervene urgently to hold the occupation and its settlers accountable and to provide international protection for Palestinians and their holy sites.
The West Bank has witnessed an escalation in attacks by settlers and the Israeli army on Palestinian agricultural lands, including arson, bulldozing, and preventing farmers from accessing their lands, particularly in areas near settlements and outposts.
Since October 8, 2023, the Israeli escalation in the West Bank has resulted in the killing of 1,173 Palestinians and the injury of 12,666 others, in addition to the arrest of approximately 23,000 and the displacement of 33,000, according to official Palestinian figures as reported by Quds Press.
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