West Bank Boils Over: Mosque Burned, Dozens Arrested, Settlers and Soldiers on Edge
A deadly clash near Nablus has triggered mass arrests and a wave of settler violence, as Israelis themselves protest in Tel Aviv
By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost
Settlers set fire to the Al-Rahma Mosque in the town of Qusra, near Nablus, this week, Al Jazeera reported, even as Israeli forces fanned out across the occupied West Bank arresting dozens of Palestinians. The mosque burning came amid what Al Jazeera described as a major escalation of settler violence following deadly clashes in a northern Palestinian village that, according to The Hill's account of an Associated Press report, left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians dead.
In the overnight and weekend response, Israeli troops searched more than 300 locations and detained more than 70 people across the West Bank, the military said in a statement cited by The Hill. Al Jazeera's separate reporting put the arrest figure at over 70 as well, describing a crackdown that has intensified alongside settlement expansion, though the pace and scale of that expansion is not independently quantified in the sources reviewed here.
Not everyone in Israel is quiet about it. Al Jazeera reported that Israeli police arrested nine people at a protest in Tel Aviv against settler violence in the West Bank, where a protest group said at least 200 people had demonstrated, a small but pointed sign of domestic dissent a day after the violence peaked.
What comes next is unclear. None of the sources reviewed here indicate a ceasefire, an official Israeli government response beyond the military statement, or Palestinian Authority comment. The raids continue; so, evidently, do the funerals.
— Compiled from reporting by Al Jazeera and The Hill.
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