Palestinian residents in Israel’s occupied West Bank city of Marda reported Friday that Israeli settlers set fire to and vandalized a mosque, writing slurs and threatening slogans in spray paint on its walls.
In security video taken from the scene, a masked and hooded person can be seen spray-painting the walls of the mosque. At least two others join the person, one of them carrying what appears to be a large jug or container as they head into the building.
Among the messages sprayed on the wall were “Death to Arabs,” and “the righteous will rejoice because he sees revenge,” a quote from the Hebrew Bible’s book of Psalms.
In a video statement Friday, Marda village council chief Nasfat al-Khufash called it a systematic terror attack.
“A number of settlers set fire and attempted an attack on a wider scale on the mosque,” he said. “These attacks are continuous and systematic by settler groups.”
Israeli police and the Israeli security agency Shin Bet security services said in a joint statement: “We see this incident as extremely serious and will act resolutely to bring the perpetrators to justice for rigorous trial.”
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported, in a statement posted to the social media platform X, Israeli Air Force fighter jets — under the direction of Israeli intelligence and the Israeli Navy — struck Houthi militant targets overnight on the western coast of Yemen as well as deeper in the country.
The statement said it hit fuel and oil tanks, two power plants and eight tugboats. The IDF said hitting the targets “severely harms the military operations of the Houthi forces.”
The IDF said the Iranian-backed Houthi militants have “carried out repeated attacks on the State of Israel, in which unmanned aerial vehicles and surface-to-surface missiles were launched toward the country’s territory.”
Also Friday, Sweden announced it was ending funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees — known as UNRWA. Sweden’s international aid chief, Benjamin Dousa, made the announcement on Swedish television, saying the decision came following Israeli lawmakers passing a ban on the agency from working in Gaza.
Israel has long claimed UNRWA was a front for terrorists. Sweden said it plans to increase its aid to Gaza in the next year but will do so through other aid agencies.
In a statement Friday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called the decision “disappointing” and said it comes at the worst time for Palestine refugees. The agency chief said it will double the suffering the people of Gaza have “endured over the past 14 months since the horrendous Hamas attack on 7 October and the ongoing war.”
Lazzerini said he hopes Sweden reconsiders its decision.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of 250 hostages.
Gaza health officials say Israel’s counteroffensive has killed at least 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, while Israel says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas combatants.
Hamas has been designated as a terror group by the United States, Britain, the European Union and others.
VOA’s United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report, and some information was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
