Gaza, December 12: The Palestinian acting Authority chief and Caretaker Prime Minister have deplored an attack on a mosque as another Israeli ‘act of terrorism’ against Palestinians.
“The torching of the mosque in Yasuf is a despicable crime, and the settlers are behaving with brutality.” acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas said.
“The settlers’ unruly behavior must be stopped.”
Extremist settlers vandalized the mosque in the West Bank village of Yasuf just before dawn on Friday. The vandals burned prayer mats and a book stand with sacrosanct, Islamic texts, and sprayed slogans on the mosque wall reading, ‘Get ready to pay the price.’ Another was accompanied by the more direct threat, ‘We will burn all of you.’
The Israeli police said that their investigation into the assault on the mosque points to the likelihood that settlers from nearby Tapuah are behind the attack. The local Palestinian governor, Munir Abushi, accused the Israeli security forces of doing too little to protect Palestinians from settler attacks.
Hard-line settlers advocate a ‘price tag’ policy under which they attack Palestinians in retaliation for any Israeli government measure they see as threatening Jewish settlements.
Palestinian Caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad described the attack on the Palestinian mosque as another act of terrorism by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
“The incident shows Israel is not observing the conditions for a resumption of stalled negotiations,” Fayyad added.
The senior Palestinian official also called for support from the international community in putting an end to the current political deadlock.
This incident is the latest in a spate of anti-Muslim violence, which has also seen the eviction of Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
In October, Israeli vandals attacked the Al-Aqsa Mosque – the Muslim world’s third-holiest site – in Jerusalem Al-Quds, which caused public outrage in the Muslim world and prompted condemnation from the international community.
——Agencies