Palestinian residents of Burqa, east of Ramallah, battled to extinguish a fire at their mosque on Sunday evening after Israeli settlers broke through the doors and set the entrance ablaze while worshippers were still inside. The attempted arson, captured in video that showed heavy damage, was the most shocking episode in a wave of settler violence that also saw vehicles torched in Burqa and the nearby town of Deir Dibwan, where attackers smashed car windows and set two vehicles alight. In Nablus, settlers staged a provocative march through the streets, shouting slogans asserting Jewish claims to the city, further inflaming tensions.

The rampages spanned several governorates. In Jit, near Qalqilya, settlers hurled petrol bombs at three homes and set fire to agricultural land and four vehicles before residents and civil defence crews managed to extinguish the flames. In Ein Arik, west of Ramallah, attackers threw Molotov cocktails at houses and opened fire with live ammunition at villagers who tried to repel them; no casualties were reported, but the use of firearms underscored the lethal escalation. In the northern Jordan Valley, a new settlement outpost was erected east of Tubas and settlers began grazing livestock on Palestinian farmland, while land-clearing continued west of Nablus and attacks struck villages in the Hebron hills. The Israeli military described the settler actions as “violent riots by Israeli civilians” and said forces were deployed to disperse them—a characterisation rejected by Palestinian officials who argue the army routinely shields attackers from accountability.

From Ramallah, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced the assaults as “organised terrorism” aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinian communities. Echoed by Indonesian media coverage that highlighted the mosque attack, Palestinian diplomats called on the UN Security Council to impose sanctions and ensure that perpetrators face justice under international law. Across Arab capitals, the violence was framed as state-backed land grabs, with commentators pointing to the simultaneous expansion of settlement infrastructure and the impunity enjoyed by attackers.

Viewed from European and American capitals, the surge in ideologically driven settler violence amounts to a critical test for a dormant peace process. Analysts in London note that the new Tubas outpost illustrates how the settler movement, emboldened by Israel’s most right-wing government in history, is systematically altering facts on the ground. With the Security Council deadlocked by Washington’s veto, U.S. calls for restraint have yielded little practical consequence. As Palestinian despair deepens and arson attacks multiply, the West Bank risks sliding from a controlled crisis into a broader conflagration.