SETTLERS SET FIRE TO MOSQUE AS ISRAELI FORCES RAID WEST BANK VILLAGES

Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque, an olive tree and a vehicle during a raid on the village of Mikhmas in the occupied West Bank early on Wednesday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Online reports said settlers also spray-painted racist slogans on the mosque's walls and on nearby buildings and Palestinian homes. Elsewhere in the West Bank that day, settlers attacked a Palestinian boy in Beita, south of Nablus, while Israeli forces arrested three Palestinians during a raid in Qalqilya. Troops also raided the village of Tammun and fired tear gas, according to the Palestinian outlet Quds News Network.

The olive harvest is under way across the West Bank, and farmers have reported settlers mobilising to intimidate and obstruct them during the harvest, a key source of income. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have accused the Israeli government of facilitating settler violence to expand Israeli control over Palestinian land. Such incidents have increased since the war in Gaza began three years ago, Palestinian sources said. Amnesty International says around 750,000 settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in settlements it describes as illegal under international law.

In a separate development in the northern Jordan Valley, Israeli forces removed a fence that settlers had installed on land belonging to the Nab'a al-Ghazal community in Al-Farisiyah, Wafa reported. The fence was taken down after the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission and Tubas Governorate secured a court ruling on Tuesday ordering its removal. Mutaz Basharat, who oversees the colonial settlement file at Tubas Governorate, confirmed the fence's removal to Wafa. Both developments were reported as Israeli forces continued raids across West Bank villages this week.