Israeli settlers set hearth to two mosques in separate attacks within the occupied West Financial institution within the early hours of Sunday, inflicting important injury and daubing them with racist graffiti.
The mosques are Al-Rahma in Qusra, south of Nablus, and one within the village of Kour, south of Tulkarem.
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Israeli settlers additionally spray-painted the phrases “Jewish revenge” because the mosques have been set on hearth.
That is the most recent incident in years of violent occupation and ethnic cleaning of the Palestinian individuals by Israeli settlers and forces.
Palestinian officers say not less than 45 mosques were vandalised or burned by unlawful settlers within the West Financial institution in 2025 alone.
On Friday, a bunch of Israeli settlers who’re alleged to be restricted from getting into Palestinian areas entered the village of Tal (Inform), southwest of Nablus, triggering a confrontation with Palestinian residents.
In keeping with Al Jazeera Arabic, the residents compelled them to retreat, however the settlers stormed again inside the hour, previous the Havat Gilad settlement publish, sparking clashes and bodily preventing between the unarmed Palestinian residents and the armed settlers.
Farouk Ramadan, an unarmed resident, reportedly seized a rifle from an armed Israeli and opened hearth.
In the course of the incident, 4 Palestinians and two Israeli troopers have been killed, whereas a number of others have been wounded.
Is Israeli settler violence within the West Financial institution frequent?
Information from the United Nations Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) exhibits that between January 1, 2025 and June 31, 2026, there have been 3,033 Israeli settler assaults.
The Ramallah and el-Bireh governorate recorded the highest-ever variety of settler assaults for a similar time interval, with 881 incidents, adopted by Nablus with 660 and Hebron with 497.
Since Israel’s genocidal battle on Gaza started in October 2023, violence by Israeli settlers within the occupied West Financial institution has steadily risen.
Some 1,291 settler assaults have been recorded in 2023, rising to 1,449 in 2024, 1,835 in 2025 and 761 within the first 4 months of 2026. That equates to a median of 190 assaults monthly in 2026, up from 153 monthly in 2025 – a 24 p.c enhance within the month-to-month price.
Each West Financial institution governorate has confronted settler assaults over the previous 12 months.
Who’re Israeli settlers?
Settlers are Israeli residents dwelling in unlawful, Jewish-only communities, often known as Israeli settlements, constructed on Palestinian-owned land that Israel occupied in 1967.
Benjamin Netanyahu – Israel’s longest-serving prime minister – has bolstered settlement expansions since he first got here to energy in 1996, undermining the 1993 Oslo Accords, which referred to as for the freezing of settlements and a mutually negotiated two-state answer.
Earlier this 12 months, for instance, the Israeli authorities approved a plan to start land registration within the occupied West Financial institution, that means it is going to be capable of seize land from Palestinians who can’t show possession.
As we speak, roughly 10 p.c of Israel’s Jewish inhabitants, totalling between 600,000 and 750,000 individuals, reside in about 250 settlements and outposts dispersed all through the occupied West Financial institution and East Jerusalem.
Many of those settlements are situated close to Palestinian inhabitants centres, usually resulting in elevated tensions and restrictions on motion for Palestinians.
Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds
In recent times, unlawful Israeli settlers have intensified incursions into Palestinian land and expanded unlawful settlements, as a part of an effort to grab extra Palestinian land.
In whole, not less than 1,988 Palestinians have been displaced throughout the occupied West Financial institution within the first 4 months of 2026.
That’s already 20 p.c greater than 2025’s tally for your complete 12 months, in line with figures compiled by OCHA.
Since January 2025, the best displacement of Palestinians in settler assaults has been seen in Ramallah (1,205), adopted by Jericho (861) and Tubas (619).
Why most demolitions and assaults are in Space C
As a part of the 1993 Oslo Accords, signed by the Palestine Liberation Group (PLO) and Israel, the occupied West Financial institution was divided into three areas – A, B and C.
The accords additionally supplied for the formation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) – an administrative physique charged with governing Palestinian inside safety, administration and civilian affairs in areas of self-rule, for a five-year interim interval.
Space A initially comprised 3 p.c of the West Financial institution and grew to 18 p.c by 1999. In Space A, the PA controls most affairs.
Space B represents about 22 p.c of the West Financial institution. In each areas, whereas the PA is in control of training, healthcare and the economic system, the Israelis have full management of exterior safety, that means they maintain the precise to enter at any time.
Space C represents 60 p.c of the West Financial institution. Beneath the Oslo Accords, management of this space was alleged to be handed over to the PA. Nonetheless, this by no means occurred, and Israel retains whole management over all issues, together with safety, planning and building. Though Space C is the least populated space of the West Financial institution, with about 300,000 Palestinians in contrast with about three million in Areas A and B, the overwhelming majority of dwelling demolitions and settler assaults happen there, as a consequence of it being beneath full Israeli navy and administrative management.
The Israeli Civil Administration hardly ever grants constructing permits to Palestinians on this space, so almost all Palestinian building is taken into account unlawful and topic to demolition.
