Israeli settlers torch West Bank mosque: Palestinians

Israeli settlers torched a mosque near the West Bank town of Ramallah overnight, Palestinian security officials said on Wednesday, as violence intensified in the occupied territory. ”The settlers set fire to the whole of the first floor of the mosque” in the village of Al-Mughayir, near the Shilo settlement,” a security official said. Another mosque in the same village was set ablaze in a similar attack in 2012. Hardline Jewish settlers frequently accompany their revenge attacks with graffiti bearing the legend “price tag” but that was not the case in the latest arson attack, the officials said. Since the current round of violence began exactly five months ago with the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three Israeli teenagers by militants, at least 17 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to an AFP count.

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