After completing Maghrib prayer, 92-year-old Yasser Saqer Rashid was reading the Quran in a corner of the al-Marah mosque in the occupied West Bank town of Deir Dibwan when a commotion erupted outside. Israeli settlers stormed the mosque courtyard, and one allegedly poured an incendiary substance on the window to start a fire. “He wanted to burn me alive,” Rashid, a Palestinian American, told Al Jazeera. Surveillance footage captured masked settlers breaking into inner rooms before setting six vehicles ablaze.
In the neighboring town of Burqa, the al-Noor mosque was also targeted in an arson attack shortly after, with attackers igniting tires and flammable materials at the doors. Settler attacks have surged since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed over 73,000 people. The Palestinian group Hamas condemned the attacks. According to UN data, at least 13 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank so far this year. Far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have openly backed settlers and called for ethnic cleansing.
Adel Maatan, the muezzin of the Burqa mosque, who was reciting the Quran during the attack, stated: “We are steadfast here and will not leave. This is our land, inherited from our ancestors, and we will remain in it until the Day of Judgement.” Mansour Mansour, mayor of Deir Dibwan, said the assailants meticulously divided roles: one group targeted the mosque and the elderly man, another attacked homes, and a third set fire to vehicles and crops. Despite holding US citizenship, Rashid found his passport offered no protection and appealed to Washington for protection of Palestinian Americans.
Further north, in the village of Beit Imrin near Nablus, Sadeq Faqih’s dream home became a “prison” after an Israeli settler outpost was established nearby. On April 21, 2026, settlers breached his property, destroying glass doors. Despite surveillance footage showing the attackers’ faces, the case was closed against “unknown assailants.” Faqih fortified his home with barbed wire and reinforced windows. His wife Abeer, 36 weeks pregnant, fell down stairs in panic, her water breaking. Baby Saleh was born prematurely and remains in intensive care with lung issues and a bacterial infection.
According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, in May 2026 alone, Israeli forces and settlers carried out 1,659 attacks against Palestinians and their property, including 551 by settlers exclusively. These attacks resulted in the burning or uprooting of 7,222 trees, including 3,317 olive trees. Religious sites have become flashpoints: in May, 22 attacks on Muslim religious sites were recorded, mostly in Hebron. Since October 2023, settlers have established at least 165 new outposts. The settler population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has grown from 250,000 in the 1990s to over 750,000 now.
Amnesty International last week stated that the displacement of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank forms part of a deliberate Israeli government strategy of ethnic cleansing, not just actions of rogue settlers. On Tuesday, Israel seized planning and construction powers over the Ibrahimi Mosque from Palestinian authorities. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that over 117 villages and communities in the West Bank have experienced complete or partial displacement due to settler attacks.
Source: www.aljazeera.com