In yet another crime highlighting the escalating systematic violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, extremist Israeli settlers set fire to the Hajjah Hamida Mosque in the town of Deir Istiya, north of Salfit governorate, in the early hours of Thursday. Racist Hebrew graffiti, including insults directed at the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and threats to local residents, was sprayed across the mosque walls.
Eyewitnesses reported that a group of settlers infiltrated the town under the cover of darkness and ignited parts of the mosque. Residents rushed to extinguish the flames, but not before carpets, Qur’ans, and religious books were destroyed, and the walls and ceiling were blackened with smoke.
Imam Ahmad Salman stated in a media interview that he arrived at the mosque for the dawn prayer to find the blaze underway. He assisted civil defence teams in containing it before it could engulf the entire mosque. He also recalled a similar attack on another mosque in the town several years ago.
This attack is part of a pattern of escalating settler violence against Palestinians and their property, carried out with apparent protection or complicity from Israeli occupation forces. These assaults increasingly target homes, schools, farmland, and places of worship, as part of what appears to be a deliberate campaign of forced displacement.
Over the past two years, settler violence in the West Bank has surged to unprecedented levels, with more than 7,000 recorded incidents involving killings, arson, looting, and destruction of property. These acts have led to the deaths of dozens and the displacement of entire communities.
Repeated attacks on places of worship, especially mosques, reflect a systematic effort to undermine religious symbols and erode the social fabric of Palestinian society. Such actions are a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, which prohibits attacks on holy sites and mandates their protection.
The continued impunity surrounding these attacks further highlights the absence of legal protection for Palestinians in the occupied territories and demonstrates how settler and state violence are increasingly two sides of the same coin in a broader campaign of religious and ethnic repression.
Residents of Deir Istiya now fear that the torching of their mosque may mark the beginning of a new wave of assaults. Local leaders are calling for both communal and international efforts to safeguard Islamic and Christian holy sites, which have become direct targets in the ongoing struggle over land and identity.
