At dawn Thursday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers set fire to the Hajja Hamida Mosque, located between the towns of Deir Istiya and Kifl Haris, near Salfit, in the central part of the occupied West Bank.
The attackers poured flammable liquids at the mosque’s entrance and defaced its walls with racist, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim graffiti in Hebrew.
Local activist Nazmi Salman, who monitors colonizer violations told the Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) that the colonizers attempted to burn the mosque, but swift intervention by villagers prevented the fire from spreading throughout the building.
The flames still caused damage inside, and the graffiti included slurs such as “Muhammad is a pig” and “We’re not afraid of Avi Blot,” referring to the commander of Israel’s Central Command.
The Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs condemned the attack as a heinous crime and a deliberate assault on Islamic sanctities.
In an official statement, the ministry described the arson as a clear reflection of the “barbarity of Israel’s racist incitement machine” targeting both Islamic and Christian holy sites in Palestine.
The statement emphasized that no place of worship is safe under the constant wave of colonizer and military violence, calling the attack a provocative act of religious hatred and part of a systematic escalation in both frequency and severity.
The ministry further noted that repeated assaults on mosques—including arson, closures, and bans on the call to prayer—are evidence of the aggressive and lawless nature of the Israeli occupation.
It stressed that such crimes violate all international laws and conventions that guarantee freedom of worship and the sanctity of religious sites.
The Ministry of Endowments urged international Islamic institutions—including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Islamic Conference—as well as Arab and Muslim-majority states to take urgent action to halt these escalating violations.
It also called on local councils and residents to remain vigilant during this critical period, warning that settler attacks on religious and civilian infrastructure are intensifying across the West Bank.
On Wednesday, illegal Israeli colonizers carried out a number of attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, resulting in the injury of at least four citizens, including a woman in Bethlehem, Jericho, and Salfit. Occupation forces razed land and expropriated 38 dunams of land belonging to the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron in the southern West Bank.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
