Since outpost removal, two mosques, IDF base 'price tagged'

A group of unidentified individuals vandalized a mosque on Thursday near Nablus in what is suspected to be a "price tag" attack by settlers avenging the demolition of three structures in the illegal Migron outpost earlier this week.

The graffiti on the mosque, located in the village of Yitma near Nablus, included offensive slogans to Islam's prophet Muhammad, as well as the scrawling of "price tag Migron" and "life is temporary." Residents in the nearby village of Kabalan also reported that two cars were set ablaze, and the neighboring village of Hawara said 35 of its olive trees were cut down. It was the second time a Palestinian mosque has been attacked since.

Palestinian sources on Monday said that settlers had torched a mosque south of Nablus as retaliation for the early morning demolition in Migron.

According to Palestinian sources, a group of settlers arrived at the mosque in the village of Qusra around 3 a.m., and hurled burning tires toward it, breaking several of its windows. The assailants also spray-painted stars of David and anti-Muslim graffiti in the mosque, adding that stones were thrown at Palestinian cars south of Nablus early Monday morning.

Abdel Azeem Wadi, a member of the village council in Qusra near the Palestinian city of Nablus, told Al Arabiya that settlers threw burning tires into the mosque, damaging the entire first floor. The names of Migron and a second Jewish outpost were written in Hebrew on the mosque walls, as well as insults against the Prophet Mohammed and a Star of David, Wadi added.

The attacks on the mosques were joined this week, for the first time in Israeli history, by a "price tag" attack on an IDF base following an outpost removal. In the past, settler extremists have vandalized military vehicles and other equipment, but Wednesday's attack inside an IDF base was considered a serious escalation. The Judea and Samaria District Police are checking reports that the vandals were aided by soldiers on the base.

Settlement leaders have not made efforts to lower the tensions. The Binyamin Settlers Council started a campaign on Thursday against the IDF's Central Command, Judea and Samaria Division, and Binyamin brigade chiefs.

According to the settlement leaders those officers tried to trick the settlers when they were on their way to destroy homes in the Migron outpost by telling them they were going on a routine exercise preparing for the Palestinian declaration of statehood in September.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin met on Thursday with the Migron outpost's leadership. "There's no more reason to lobby for you [Migron] or try to dodge and postpone [decisions]. The government has the authority to make Migron legal and declare that its residents will not be removed."

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