Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque and graffitied its outside walls on Wednesday (October 14, 2026) in the occupied West Bank village of Mikhmas, Palestinian sources and the Israeli military said.

Atta Kanaan, a Palestinian resident of Mikhmas who lives 50 metres from the mosque, told AFP that he heard the sound of breaking glass shortly after midnight on Wednesday and immediately went to the building.

“A fire was burning fiercely, and we called the fire brigade. Young men rushed to help us with fire extinguishers, and we managed to contain part of the fire before the flames engulfed the entire mosque,” he said.

Israel’s military told AFP that soldiers were dispatched to Mikhmas following a report of graffiti and arson at the mosque, as well as damage to a vehicle.

“No suspects were identified,” it said, adding an investigation had been opened.

AFP video footage showed that the fire had burned down the mosque’s interior carpeting and blackened the walls.

An AFP journalist reported that slogans were spraypainted in Hebrew on the exterior walls, including “just because we are quiet doesn’t mean we are asleep”.

Settlers also set fire to a car, Mr. Kanaan said, adding that in recent weeks villagers had formed night-watch patrols out of fear that settlers might torch homes, particularly those on the outskirts of the village.

Mikhmas is located in the central West Bank between Ramallah and Jerusalem, near several Israeli settlement outposts whose residents have attacked the community on several occasions in recent months.

Rouhi Fattouh, president of the Palestinian National Council, described the arson attack on the mosque as “a barbaric act and a dangerous escalation in settler terrorism”.

The Palestinian National Council serves as the parliament of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has soared in recent months. Settler attacks have included physical assaults, land and crop theft, and vandalism of places of worship, homes and other buildings.

Excluding east Jerusalem, around three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, alongside more than 500,000 Israelis residing in settlements considered illegal under international law.

Israeli settlers set fire to mosques in two West Bank villages on Wednesday (June 17, 2026), their mayors said, with AFP journalists at one site seeing scorched walls and graffiti.

The incident came during a period of increased attacks against Palestinian communities by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in 2023.

Osama Abdullah, head of the village council in Jiljiliya, north of Ramallah, told AFP that “settlers set fire to the ablution room, caused damage to the village’s main mosque, and scrawled hostile slogans on the outer walls”.

AFP journalists who visited one mosque on Wednesday (June 17, 2026) saw that the ceiling, walls and floors were blackened by smoke and flames.

Graffiti had also been daubed on the walls in Hebrew. Some read “vengeance” and “Hi, from the Hilltop Youth.”

The Hilltop Youth are a group of Israelis in the West Bank who are regularly accused of violence towards Palestinians they seek to evict from areas they want to take over.

Israel’s military confirmed the arson and graffiti on the mosques but did not identify the perpetrators.

“The forces searched the area for suspects and located two burnt mosques, as well as graffiti on the walls. The suspects had fled prior to the arrival of the forces,” it said in a statement.

Mayor Abdullah said settlers arrived to burn down the mosque between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. but found its door was locked, so instead they set fire to a room dedicated to ablutions on a lower floor.

He said Palestinian civil defence crews, along with young men from the village and neighbouring areas, extinguished the blaze.

In the neighbouring village of Mazari an-Nubani, settlers came to torch another mosque overnight, the head of the village council, Saad Dagher, told AFP.

Mr. Dagher said settlers arrived to attack one of the village’s three mosques with Molotov cocktails around 3 a.m., before running away while residents put out the fire.

The Palestinian Ministry of religious affairs condemned “dangerous aggressions” in a statement that also called on the international community to intervene.

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has approved plans for a settlement that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, a move his office said would bury the idea of a Palestinian state.

It was not immediately clear if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed the plan to revive the long-frozen E1 scheme, which Palestinians and world powers have said would effectively lop the West Bank in two and will likely draw international ire.

In a statement headlined “Burying the idea of a Palestinian state”, Mr. Smotrich’s spokesperson announced the decision and said the development would build 3,401 houses for Israeli settlers between an existing settlement in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Israel had frozen construction plans there since 2012 because of objections from the U.S., European allies and other world powers who considered the project a threat to any future peace deal with the Palestinians.

Palestinians fear the settlement building in the West Bank — which has sharply intensified since the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that led to the Gaza war — will rob them of any chance to build a state of their own in the area.

Settler violence has rocketed, from destruction of olive groves and cutting water and electricity in communities like Susiya, to incendiary attacks on Christian holy sites.

There was no immediate statement from Mr. Netanyahu or the broader government. Mr. Smotrich’s popularity has fallen in recent months with polls showing his party would not win a single seat if parliamentary elections were held today.

‘Crimes of genocide’

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called the new settlement plan an extension of crimes of genocide, displacement and annexation, and an echo of Mr. Netanyahu’s statements regarding what he called ‘Greater Israel’.

The E1 project would connect the Maale Adumim settlement in the West Bank with Jerusalem. Most of the international community views Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and its military occupation over the region since 1967, as illegal.

Peace Now, which tracks settlement activity in the West Bank, said the Housing Ministry had approved the construction of 3,300 homes in Maale Adumim.

“The E1 plan is deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution. We are standing at the edge of an abyss, and the government is driving us forward at full speed,” Peace Now said in a statement.

Palestinians were already demoralised by the Israeli military campaign which has killed more than 61,000 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities, and fear Mr. Netanyahu will ultimately push them out of that territory.