Israeli settlers set fire to mosques in two West Bank villages on Wednesday, the local mayors said, while AFP journalists at the site saw signs of arson and vandalism.
The military confirmed to AFP the arson and graffiti on the mosques, but did not identify the perpetrators.
“The forces searched the area for suspects and located two burned mosques, as well as graffiti on the walls. The suspects had fled prior to the arrival of the forces,” it said in a statement.
Osama Abdullah, head of the village council in Jiljiliya, north of Ramallah, told AFP that “settlers set fire to the ablution room, caused damage to the village’s main mosque, and scrawled hostile slogans on the outer walls.”
AFP journalists who visited the mosque on Wednesday reported that the ceiling, walls, and floors were blackened by smoke and flames.
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They said graffiti in Hebrew had been scrawled on the walls, including some reading, “Hi from the Hilltop Youth,” “Guys, wake up,” “Night of the mosques,” and “Revenge.”
مستوطنون يضرمون النار في مسجد ويخطّون شعارات معادية خلال هجومهم على قرية جلجليا شمال رام الله. pic.twitter.com/Q8AZ6tGItJ
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) June 17, 2026
???? فيديو | مستوطنون يضرمون النار في مسجد قرية جلجليا شمال رام الله pic.twitter.com/kgZWPlU6tk
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) June 16, 2026
Molotov cocktails
The Hilltop Youth are a group of Israelis in the West Bank who are regularly accused of violence towards Palestinians, whom they seek to evict from areas they wish to take over.
Mayor Abdullah said settlers arrived to burn down the mosque between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., but found its door was locked and instead set fire to a room dedicated to ablutions on a lower floor.
He said Palestinian civil defense crews, along with young men from the village and neighboring areas, extinguished the blaze.
In the neighboring village of Mazari an-Nubani, settlers came to torch another mosque overnight, the head of the village council, Saad Dagher, told AFP.
Dagher said settlers arrived to burn one of the village’s three mosques around 3 a.m., using Molotov cocktails, before running away while residents put out the fire.
A man clears the rubble at one of the West Bank mosques that were vandalized and partly set on fire by Israeli settlers overnight, in the village of Jiljilya, north of Ramallah, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
The Palestinian Authority Religious Affairs Ministry condemned “dangerous aggressions” in a statement that also called on the international community to intervene.
Israel’s military has controlled the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the territory, among some three million Palestinians.
Violent attacks by settlers are a daily occurrence in the West Bank, with extremists assaulting Palestinians, torching their cars, damaging their property, and stealing their livestock without fear of repercussion.
The United Nations recently warned that settler violence in the West Bank has reached record levels, with an average of six attacks daily causing casualties or damage.
Arrests in cases of settler violence are rare, and convictions are even less common. The IDF has faced criticism for often standing by and failing to prosecute perpetrators, or even for actively participating in the rampages.
In contrast, the military frequently arrests Palestinians who confront the settler violence with violence of their own.
Nurit Yohanan and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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