En moske i landsbyen Yasuf på Vestbredden ble skadd i en anlagt brann, og mistanken går i retning bosettere. Elementer blant bosettere er villig til å bruke vold for å bekjempe moratoriet på utvidelse av bosettingene.

På en av veggene sto det skrevet på hebraisk: – Gjør dere klar til å betale prisen.

Enkelte bosettere ønsker å bruke utpressingstaktikk mot regjeringen: de vil angripe palestinerne helt til regjeringen gir etter og opphever 10-måneders moratoriet.

One of the slogans sprayed on the wall of the mosque in Yasuf read: «Get ready to pay the price,» Israeli public radio reported. Another read: «We will burn you all.»

Some hard-line settlers advocate a «price tag» policy under which they attack Palestinians in retaliation for any Israeli government measure they see as threatening Jewish settlements.

The village is located near the Jewish settlement of Tappuah.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it «views the incident gravely» and that security forces were working to locate the perpetrators.

But the local Palestinian governor, Munir Abushi, accused the Israeli security forces of doing too little to protect Palestinians from settler attacks.

A settler organisation in the area denied that settlers were behind the attack.

Meanwhile one rabbi from the south of the West Bank, Mechachem Froman, has offered to help renovate the mosque, saying attacks against holy buildings were against Jewish law.

Fire attack on West Bank mosque