By Aysar Al-Ayas and Betul Yilmaz
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Illegal Israeli settlers burnt a mosque northwest of Jericho city in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, according to a local activist.
Hasan Mleihat of the non-governmental Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, said settlers also tried to torch a tractor in the Mleihat Bedouin community in the area.
“The mosque was completely burned down, but residents managed to stop the fire on the tractor,” he added.
Illegal settlers carried out over 2,970 attacks against Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank in 2024, according to Palestinian figures. At least 10 Palestinians were killed and over 14,000 olive trees damaged in these attacks.
Nearly 770,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in 180 settlements and 256 outposts in the occupied West Bank.
At least 900 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 6,700 others injured by Israeli army fire in the West Bank since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Health Ministry.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.