According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces fired tear gas into a mosque in Madama, near Nablus, while worshippers were performing evening prayers. Verified video footage shows worshippers coughing and choking, with one elderly man bending over due to difficulty breathing.
The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs said the incident caused several elderly people to suffer from suffocation and seriously disrupted the prayer service. The attack came just hours after Israeli settlers attempted to set fire to the Nur al-Din Zanki mosque in the nearby town of Bazariya. Images show black burn marks around the windows and Hebrew graffiti sprayed on the walls.
A resident living near the Zanki mosque, Majed Nasr, recounted: “There was a small explosion that caused a fire inside the building. We managed to contain the flames before they spread to the upper part.” At the scene, racist slogans were found, including threats against Palestinians and a message directed at U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, reading: “Huckabee, greetings from the terrorists.” Last month, Huckabee referred to settlers attacking Palestinians as “terrorists.”
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement warning of the “risk of an escalating religious war” as Israeli forces and settlers repeatedly attack religious sites in the West Bank, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem. The attacks are considered “crossing all red lines, which could trigger a religious conflict with severe consequences for the region and the world.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs condemned these acts and said that at least 13 mosques have been desecrated by Israeli forces or settlers since the beginning of 2026. On the same day, settlers also set vehicles on fire in the towns of Beta and Nahalin. In August, the United Nations reported that at least 76 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank this year, about 3,800 have been displaced due to settler violence, and more than 1,430 attacks causing casualties or property damage have been recorded.
Additionally, Israeli forces detained at least 14 Palestinians in various areas, uprooted olive trees near Jenin, destroyed greenhouses, and ordered the demolition of a house in the town of Idhna.
