Israeli settlers vandalize mosque, homes in Bethlehem-district village

Israeli Jewish settlers predawn Friday vandalized a mosque and several homes in the southern West Bank village of al-Jabaa village, west of Bethlehem, said a municipal source.

Head of al-Jabaa Village Council Dhyab Masha'ala said that a large number of settlers broke into the village and spray-painted anti-Palestinian racist slogans on the exterior walls of a local mosque and four homes.

Settlers also spray-painted similar slogans on a number of vehicles and punctured the tires of six others.

Slogans reading “We will take revenge” and “You have to leave” were scrawled in Hebrew.

“Price tag” refers to an underground anti-Palestinian Israeli group that routinely attacks Palestinians in the occupied territories and inside Israel.

The Israeli government still refuses to label it as a terrorist organization and considers it only as group of vandals. It also considers such acts as hate crimes against Palestinians.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

Settlers' violence includes property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.

Over 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.

All settlements across the West Bank are illegal under international law, particularly article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which establishes that the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.