Arson attacks on mosque denounced

Arab countries and the international community, led by the United Nations, have condemned the arson attacks on a West Bank mosque at dawn on Thursday — the latest in a series of violent incidents seen there in recent weeks.

In a news briefing in New York on Thursday, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said they "are deeply disturbed by the attack by Israeli settlers" who set fire overnight to a mosque in a West Bank village.

"Such attacks on places of worship are completely unacceptable. We have and will continue to condemn attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank," said Dujarric.

The latest mosque attacks also defy comments by Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday, who condemned the "shocking and serious" violence earlier that day.

Herzog said settler attacks on villagers and the Israeli forces that responded to the incidents in the villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf had crossed a "red line".

In a statement on X, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates lambasted what it called a "heinous crime committed by extremist settlers" who set fire to Hajjeh Hamideh Mosque, located in Salfit Governorate, and vandalized its walls with racist slogans.

"The ministry holds the Israeli government fully responsible for this dangerous escalation and the growing wave of settler terrorism, which is encouraged and protected by official policies aimed at displacing Palestinians and entrenching the colonial occupation," the ministry said.

Jordan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates called on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities.

Spokesman Fuad Al-Majali affirmed Jordan's "absolute rejection of these attacks, which constitute an extension of the Israeli government's extremist policy and the statements of its officials", fueling "extremism and violence against the Palestinian people".

The Spanish government urged the Israeli government "to put a decisive end to violence and impunity and to bring those responsible for these actions to justice", including the policy of settlement expansion.

Germany, which has defended Israel amid the Gaza atrocities, also called for a stop to settler violence and urged a thorough investigation. The Swiss Foreign Ministry said that the arson attacks were "unacceptable" and that the expansion of illegal settlements must stop.

The increasingly intensified attacks in the West Bank have posed a growing concern among parties navigating the second phase of a United States-brokered ceasefire deal.

Concerns expressed

The US had earlier expressed concerns that the West Bank attacks could dampen Gaza peace efforts despite reports of Israel's repeated violations of the truce.

Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies, told China Daily that Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem "are essentially a single region that belongs to a Palestinian state".

"What occurs in Gaza does not remain in Gaza, but spills over to the other two places and vice versa," she said.

"When Israel conducts its atrocities in Gaza seemingly without any form of restraint, it creates an impression on the settlers that they can also go as far as they want in the West Bank," said Sulaeman.

Thus, she said, the UN and the nations with actual power over Israel must apply international law without exception and without compromise.

"The Israeli army and the settlers need to be subjected to actual pressure and actual consequences should they go on with annexation, land grabbing, demolition of homes, invasion of sacred places, or even the destruction of gardens and farmlands owned by Palestinian people," said Sulaeman.

"It is extremely difficult to envision that this conflict can be brought to a just and durable solution without decisive steps by the people in a position of power," she added.

UN spokesman Dujarric also noted that while their partners have reported "important progress" in improving healthcare, he warned that multiple impediments are restricting the organization's ability to scale up its response as quickly and efficiently as its capacity should allow.

"As winter takes hold, our partners working on shelter distributed thousands of tarpaulins, blankets, mattresses and clothing kits to vulnerable people across Gaza recently," he said.

jan@chinadailyapac.com