West Bank mosque said torched by settlers; 8 arrested for assaults on Palestinians, mosque arsons

Police announced Tuesday that they had arrested eight suspects allegedly involved in a series of arson attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, hours after yet another mosque was reportedly burned by settlers in a Palestinian village in a separate incident.

A number of former top Israeli political and military officials, meanwhile, harshly denounced the unchecked settler violence, with some comparing it to Nazi behavior, in comments published by The New York Times on Monday.

Palestinian media outlets reported Tuesday that settlers set fire to a mosque overnight in the village of Bizzariya in the Nablus area of the northern West Bank. No injuries were reported.

Graffiti in Hebrew sprayed nearby was also documented, including one message reading “Evacuations [of outposts] = trouble. You’ve been warned,” and another that read: “Regards to Huckabee from the terrorists.”

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee — a staunch supporter of West Bank settlements — has denounced violent settler extremists who besieged homes in Qusra last month as “Israeli terrorists.”

Huckabee said Tuesday that it was “truly sad that someone would take pride in being a terrorist. But a small group that damages the reputation of 99.9% of Israelis who live by both civil law and the Torah does not represent the Jewish people or the rest of Israel.”

The graffiti in Bizzariya included a warning to Roy Sharon, the military reporter for the Kan public broadcaster, appearing to threaten to torch his vehicle. In response, Kan said the threats “will not deter Roy and the Kan news team from continuing to provide reliable and professional reports, including on disturbances in Judea and Samaria,” and called on police to act swiftly to find the perpetrators.

متابعة| مستوطنون يخطّون شعارات معادية على جدران مسجد، بعد أن أحرقوه خلال هجومهم على قرية بزاريا، شمال غرب نابلس، فجر اليوم. pic.twitter.com/o9YFJddlwQ

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— شبكة فلسطين للحوار (@paldf) September 1, 2026

Meanwhile, eight Israelis were arrested overnight in the West Bank for suspected involvement in “serious arson and assault incidents in the South Hebron Hills,” police said Tuesday.

Three vehicles allegedly used by the suspects to carry out offenses were seized. The suspects, residents of the West Bank and central Israel aged 16 to 20, were taken for questioning, police said.

In a statement, police said they view “with utmost severity cases of violence and property damage that harm the security of the state and the entire settlement enterprise.”

Police told The Times of Israel that some of the detainees are suspected of setting fire to a mosque and several homes in Tuba in the South Hebron Hills on August 5, in an incident in which six Palestinians were beaten and injured by settlers, according to the Palestinians. Others are suspected of setting fire to a mosque in al-Tuwani, also in the South Hebron Hills, on July 19.

4 Palestinians shot, elderly woman beaten

Separately, an elderly Palestinian woman was hospitalized with a serious head injury after being beaten by settlers during a raid of the central West Bank village of Burqa on Monday evening, according to the Red Crescent emergency service.

The woman’s husband was also injured, and several sheep belonging to residents of the village were stolen, according to a report in the Al Jazeera news outlet.

Burqa Mayor Sayel Kanaan told the Palestinian Authority’s Wafa news agency that settlers broke into a home on the outskirts of the village and beat a woman and child inside. The settlers also tried to torch a tractor, a vehicle scrapyard and a sheep pen, according to the mayor.

مستوطنون يعتدون بالضرب المبرح على المسنة فاطمة معطان وزوجها وجيه حمدان في بلدة برقة قضاء رام الله ما أدى إلى إصابتها في رأسها إصابة بليغة وسرقة عدد من أغنامهما#فيديو pic.twitter.com/VejbmbLKL1

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) August 31, 2026

Wafa claimed that the IDF arrived at the scene shortly after the settlers and worked to break up the altercation, but arrested only Palestinians. There was no comment from the IDF on the incident.

On Sunday, four Palestinians were reported shot during a raid of the central West Bank village of al-Mughayyir by Israeli soldiers and settlers.

The Palestine Red Crescent Emergency Service claimed that its medics treated four Palestinians struck by live fire and took them to a nearby hospital.

Footage shows settlers appearing to participate in a raid along with IDF soldiers. One clip shows settlers purportedly stealing belongings from Palestinians in one of the targeted homes.

תיעוד נוסף מפלישת המתנחלים לכפר בורקה שבגדה המערבית – כעת הם חוטפים כבשים ובורחים מהכפר ????
אפס עצורים, אפס אכיפה https://t.co/g2wmPid5u6 pic.twitter.com/TwbNFa6tvn

— Arbel – ארבל ???? (@ArbelReports) August 31, 2026

On Monday, a military official claimed that IDF troops attempted to stop some 25 Israeli settlers who entered the central West Bank village of al-Mughayyir the night before.

The official said troops were dispatched to the scene and dispersed the settlers, but several Palestinians then arrived and hurled stones. The soldiers returned fire, hitting several of the Palestinians, the official added.

Troops later left the scene after they saw that both the Israelis and Palestinians had dispersed, according to the military official.

Surging violence by Israeli settlers across the West Bank — largely unchecked by Israeli authorities — has been met with severe condemnation from Western allies in recent weeks, including the United States.

‘Like the Germans’

A New York Times report published Monday cited a number of former senior Israeli defense officials denouncing the violence as the biggest danger to Israeli security as well as reminiscent of Nazi behavior toward Jews.

“When you are burning books, when you are destroying knowledge and attacking children, you’re like the Germans,” retired Air Force general Nehemia Dagan, who also served as the IDF’s chief education officer, told the newspaper during a tour of the West Bank in late June. “We have lost ourselves, and we have lost this fight.”

Settler violence has surged in recent months, with daily attacks and harassment. Prosecutions are rare, and critics accuse the IDF and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of condoning or even encouraging the violence.

Israel’s former ambassador to Spain Raphael Schutz told the newspaper that the testimony he heard about Palestinians forced to flee their homes reminded him of his mother, who fled Nazi Germany when she was a child.

“To her, it is inconceivable that Jews can behave this way,” Schutz said. “I’m glad I left the foreign service. It would be impossible for me to explain this.”

Another retired Israeli Air Force general, Asaf Agmon, also likened the settlers’ efforts to expel Palestinians from the West Bank to the actions of the Nazis, while clarifying the difference in scope of the violence.

“Once a society behaves this way, that society is doomed,” Agmon said.

“I’ve earned the right to speak. My family and I paid the highest price for this country,” added Agmon, whose grandson, Sgt. Gur Kehati, was killed fighting in Lebanon last year. “I am ashamed of what our people are doing here.”

Gal Levertov, who headed the Justice Ministry’s international division and helped represent Israel in front of the International Criminal Court, told the Times: “If I had to, I could make a legal defense of what the Israel Defense Forces have done in Gaza. But what is happening today in the West Bank? It’s indefensible.”

And retired IDF Maj. Gen. Eyal Ben-Reuven told the newspaper that “what the settlers are doing here is the real threat to Israel,” adding: “This is more concerning to me than Iran, Gaza or Lebanon.”