People inspect a mosque reportedly attacked by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian village of Bazzaryah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Sept. 1, 2026. (Credit: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP)
Israeli settlers tried to set fire to a mosque in the north of the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinians said, in the latest such attack in the territory.
The Palestinian Religious Affairs Ministry said that "a group of settlers tried to burn parts of the Nur al-Din Zanki Mosque" in Bazzaryah, near Nablus, describing the incident as a "criminal attack."
AFP photos and video from Bazzaryah showed blackened burn marks around a window of a room belonging to the mosque building and threatening Hebrew messages written on the exterior walls.
"At around 2:45 am, all of a sudden the settlers attacked it. There was a small explosion that caused a fire inside the mosque building," said Majed Nasr, who lives nearby, adding that the settlers then fled the scene.
"We managed to contain the blaze before things could get worse and reach the main upper part of the building," he told AFP.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment on the incident.
Since the start of 2026, 13 mosques have been "violated" by the Israeli military or settlers, according to the Palestinian Religious Affairs Ministry.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian presidency warned of what it called "the dangers of the continued and escalating religious war" waged by the Israeli military and settlers against religious sites including the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied east Jerusalem.
In a statement, it said the "systematic attacks... crossed all red lines and risked triggering a religious conflict with serious consequences for the region and the world."
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Violence by Israeli settlers towards Palestinians has persisted for years, with little or no legal consequence, but recent months have seen a surge in attacks.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the Palestinian territory, which are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians.
On Tuesday, Israeli police said they had arrested eight people between the ages of 16 and 20, suspected of being involved in "arson attacks and assaults in southern Hebron," in the southern West Bank.
