![](\"images\/stories\/news1\/mosque_burnt_ramalla.jpg\")
Israeli settlers torched a mosque in the West Bank on Tuesday, June 7, in a revenge attack to the demolition of a settlement in the occupied territory.It “indicates the magnitude of the aggression settlers unleash on [Muslim] holy places,” said Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Religious Affairs, Ma’an News Agency reported.
He accused the vandals of “planning to destroy our holy sites and creating new facts on the ground to Judaize the land.”
The mosque in Al-Mughayyir village near Ramallah was ablaze early morning. Flames of smoke were seen rising into the sky.
Attackers sprayed anti-Arab graffiti on the mosque’s walls, including “Aley Ayin” which is the name of a nearby settlement outpost demolished by Israeli police last week.
\u201cWe found Hebrew writings on the outside walls that read: \u2018This is the beginning of revenge,\u2019\u201d Faraj Nasan, the head of the village local council, told the Palestinian News and Information Agency.
Al-Mughayyir’s village council said the building was nearly destroyed, and its contents incinerated.
“The attack on this mosque is part of a systematic policy aiming to flame the conflict and show disrespect to the religious and human values of others,” Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Al-Quds, said.
Al-Habbash assured that refurbishment of the mosque would start immediately.
There are more than 164 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, eating up more than 40 percent of the occupied territory.
The international community considers all settlements on the occupied land illegal.<\/p>\n