RAMALLAH: Dozens of Jewish occupiers yesterday stormed a mosque in the West Bank village of Douma, opened fire on the building and attacked the imam.
Palestinian sources said the occupiers from the nearby Migdalim settlement arrived in Douma, south of Nablus, minutes before the start of Eid Al-Adha prayer.
The sources said that the occupiers broke into the mosque and attacked Imam Mohamed Hassan Dawabsheh, who was trying to stop them.
Israeli forces intervened more than an hour and a half after the settlers entered the mosque. No one was injured during the incident, which lasted more than two hours.
The occupiers’ hostilities against Palestinian property has increased after the evacuation of a disputed building in Hebron last Thursday, two weeks after the Israeli High Court of Justice ordered their eviction.
They also scrawled extremely derogatory words against Islam and Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) on mosques walls and desecrated Muslim graveyards.
Meanwhile, a senior Israeli defense official warned that the recent confrontations between the occupiers and Palestinians, on the Hebron evacuation issue, are likely to entangle Israel in a religious confrontation with Muslim communities all over the world.
The report quoted sources in the Israeli security establishment saying that the rise in violence in recent months is attracting renewed international attention to confrontations between occupiers and Palestinians, an issue which had largely faded from public view.
US and European representatives, who met with Israeli diplomats and security officials in recent months, have expressed harsh criticism of the settlers’ behavior.
