Israeli settlers set fire to West Bank mosques, graffiti and arson reported

As part of a security clampdown across the West Bank over the weekend, Israeli forces arrested around 60 Palestinians

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank early on Sunday, setting fire to two mosques and scrawling graffiti on buildings, Palestinian officials said.

The attacks followed an incident on Friday when four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers – one of them acting as a security coordinator for a nearby Israeli settlement – were killed when a crowd of Israeli settlers, some armed, approached the Palestinian village of Tal, southwest of Nablus.

During the incident, villagers came out of their homes to confront the settlers and a stand-off ensued, with video appearing to show one of the Palestinians grabbing a settler’s weapon. Palestinian local authorities say the settlers provoked the violence. The Israeli military said shots were fired by both sides.

The incident was the latest in a growing series of clashes involving settlers in which dozens of Palestinians have been killed this year and hundreds wounded, according to figures from the UN and the Palestinian Authority.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing an election in October, ordered a major security operation against what he described as terrorism against Israeli civilians, reinforcing units in the West Bank and cancelling leave.

Members of his government, including the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, have called for annexation of the West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.