Israeli sources reported Monday that the Israeli Police and Internal Security Services detained on Sunday six teen yeshiva students and three adult settlers from the illegal West Bank settlement of Yitzhar on suspicion of involvement in torching a mosque last month in Yasuf Palestinian village, near the central West Bank city of Salfit.The arrested settlers could also face other charges related to different offenses, Israeli Ynet News reported.
The Ynet said that some 100 members of the Israeli security forces raided Yitzhar and arrested the suspects. One settler claimed that he lost consciousness during the course of his arrest.
Another settler complained to Ynet reported about police behavior during the raid, and claimed that they damaged property and confiscated cameras.
Ynet added that the Israeli Police in the West Bank refused to comment on the raid.
The Salfit mosque was torched by fundamentalist Jewish settlers on December 11, 2009. The settlers also sprayed slurs on the walls of the mosque threatening to burn all Arabs, in addition to spraying “Price Tag” on its walls.
The settlers started using the Price Tag slogan several months ago and they write it after they attack Palestinian areas as an “act of revenge” for the evacuation of some structures in the settlement by the Israeli army.
The Palestinian residents of the village clashed with the Israeli army after the mosque was torched, and the army showered them with gas bombs, rubber-coated bullets and rounds of live ammunition; several residents were wounded.
Later on, both the soldiers and the settlers were involved in firing at the Palestinian protestors.
Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, ordered an investigation into the attack and instructed the police to apprehend the settlers who torched the mosque.
