6 teens indicted on terror charges for allegedly burning West Bank mosque with people inside

Six teenagers accused of participating in a settler attack on a West Bank Palestinian village are indicted on terror charges today, after allegedly setting fire to a mosque while worshipers were inside.

The defendants, five minors and an 18-year-old, are accused of joining up with other extremists on June 14 to commit a “string of violent acts, arson and harm to property and human life out of a nationalist motive,” police say.

According to the prosecutors, the group descended on the village of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, while wearing face coverings and armed with knives, tear gas, gloves, and combustible material.

There, the defendants allegedly set a fire at the entrance to the village’s local mosque during prayer, using a flammable substance that injured one worshiper’s eye when an assailant sprayed it at him.

The assailants targeted private homes, setting a family’s porch ablaze while they were inside, and torched five vehicles in the town, police say. They also allegedly set fire to agricultural land surrounding the community.

The defendants are charged in the Jerusalem District Court on a string of violent offenses, including rioting, arson under terrorist circumstances, racially-motivated property damage, and racially-motivated assault.