Hani Ismail, the head of Qosra village’s council, said the occupiers stormed Al-Nourein Mosque, smashing glass and setting fire to a number of tires within the mosque. Spray-painted slogans in Hebrew were discovered on the outer fence, Ismail said. He added that the council notified the Palestinian Liaison Office and they passed it on to the Israelis. Ismail added the village has been a daily target of occupiers from the area for a long time.

The Israeli Rabbis for Human Rights organization said it alerted most Palestinian villages in the area overnight, warning them of a possible “price tag operation” in response to the razing of the structures at Migron, to the northeast of Ramallah. The warning had also been passed to Qosra.

“Price tag” is the slogan adopted by extremist Jewish occupiers who carry out reprisals against Palestinians and their properties in response to the evacuation of settlement structures by Israeli forces.

The three buildings, built this year, were ordered to be destroyed by the Israeli High Court of Justice, following a petition by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group. The Israeli government initially said it would comply with the court ruling by mid-July, and later postponed the demolition to an unspecified date in September. The Palestinian Presidency strongly condemned the arson, describing it as “a violation of religious freedom and to holy sites.”

Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Palestinian Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs, described the burning of the mosque as “a crime against holy sites.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian witnesses also reported that dozens of occupiers threw stones at Palestinian vehicles on roads leading to Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin.