Settlers said to graffiti and try to torch West Bank mosque; entrance damaged

Palestinian media outlets reported Thursday that settlers graffitied and attempted to set fire overnight to a mosque in the village of Duma, near Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Footage circulating online showed Hebrew graffiti sprayed at the entrance of the mosque reading: “From the Or Nahman synagogue,” a reference to a synagogue that was recently dismantled in an illegal West Bank outpost.

Damage was caused to the entrance to the mosque, and no injuries were reported in the incident.

Israel Police said it opened an investigation into the incident, adding that it “completely condemns these kinds of incidents, including harm to religious sites.” The alleged arson attempt comes as Palestinians and Israeli activists who support them have reported ongoing harassment by extremist settlers in areas around Duma.

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Religious Endowments and Affairs said in a statement that there is a “systematic increase in attempts to burn mosques in the West Bank during the current month of Ramadan,” according to a report in Wafa, the Palestinian Authority news agency. It said the attacks are an attempt “to seize Palestinian land by undermining the security and resilience of Palestinian citizens in the West Bank.”

The report identified the building as the Mohammad Fayyad Mosque. According to Wafa, local residents were able to contain the fire before it spread to the rest of the building.

عصابات المستعمرين يحرقون مسجدا في قرية #دوما جنوب شرق #نابلس وكتابة شعارات متطرفة على جدرانه pic.twitter.com/iEzL35cwrk

— زاهر ابو حسين (@ZAHERABUHUSIEN) March 12, 2026

The vandalism came after Israeli authorities dismantled a synagogue that had been set up in the Or Nachman outpost overnight Tuesday.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, the graffiti referenced that incident. The outpost is named after Nachman Mordoff, an Israeli teenager who was among four people killed in a June 2023 terror attack in the West Bank.

Prosecutions in the spate of near-daily settler attacks in the West Bank are rare, and convictions are even rarer. Critics have accused the government, said to be the most right-wing in Israel’s history, of shrugging off the attacks. The police force is under the authority of National Security Minister Itama Ben Gvir, a far-right politician.

Settler violence has risen sharply since the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, in southern Israel, according to the United Nations. And Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has reported a spike in settler violence amid the war in Iran that began on February 28, with some 50 incidents recorded in the first four days of the conflict.

Five Palestinians have been killed by settlers this year, and 41 since the October 7 attack, according to Wafa.

Data published by the IDF and Shin Bet security agency in January showed a 27 percent rise in settler attacks in 2025 compared to the previous year.