92-year-old recounts Israeli settler attack on West Bank mosque

After praying Maghrib at the al-Marah mosque in the town of Deir Dibwan near Ramallah, 92-year-old Yasser Saqer Rashid sat in a corner reading the Quran. Minutes later, the noise outside drew his attention.

Israeli settlers were storming the mosque courtyard. Rashid recounted that one settler poured an incendiary substance on the mosque window. "He wanted to burn me alive," he told Al Jazeera. "I was shocked to see a settler holding a Molotov cocktail pointed directly at my face and clothes near the window."

While the structural damage to al-Marah is still unclear, surveillance cameras captured masked settlers breaking into inner rooms, then emerging to torch six cars belonging to local residents. In the neighboring town of Burqa, the al-Noor mosque was attacked with incendiary materials shortly after.

Settler attacks have intensified sharply since the start of Israel's war in Gaza, where more than 73,000 people have been killed. On June 17, Hamas condemned Israeli settlers for setting fire to a mosque in the village of Jiljilya near Ramallah. In numerous instances, settlers operate under Israeli military escort. At least 13 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the year, according to United Nations data.

According to the Committee Against Settlements and the Wall, in May 2026, Israeli forces and settlers carried out 22 separate attacks on Muslim religious sites, mainly in Hebron, Nablus, Jenin, Jericho, and Ramallah. In eastern Ramallah, dozens of mosques and homes have been targeted with incendiary devices in coordinated attacks aimed at driving Palestinian families off their land.

Deir Dibwan's mayor, Mansour Mansour, said the attackers meticulously divided roles: one group targeted the mosque and the elderly, another struck nearby homes, and a third set fire to vehicles and crops before withdrawing.

In the north, in the village of Beit Imrin near Nablus, 41-year-old Sadeq Faqih built his home in 2020 but was forced to turn it into a fortress after a new settler outpost appeared nearby. On the night of April 21, 2026, a group of settlers broke in, smashed glass doors, and tried to force their way into the main house before local residents intervened. Israeli forces arrived 20 minutes later and reviewed the camera footage, but the case was later closed with the reason "perpetrator unknown."

Faqih was forced to surround his home with barbed wire and reinforce window bars. "It has become a real prison," he said, but "we will not leave our homes under any circumstances." His wife Abeer was 36 weeks pregnant when the attack occurred. She tripped, broke her waters, and gave birth prematurely. Baby Saleh was born a few hours later and remains in the intensive care unit at Ramallah hospital, battling a Pseudomonas infection and lung problems.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 117 villages and communities across the West Bank have been wholly or partially displaced due to settler attacks. In May 2026 alone, settlers carried out 551 attacks, destroying 155 Palestinian structures. Attacks on agricultural land resulted in 7,222 trees being burned or uprooted, including 3,317 olive trees.

Since the Gaza war began in October 2023, settlers have established at least 165 new outposts. The settler population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has grown from 250,000 in the 1990s to more than 750,000 today. Last week, Amnesty International declared that the displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank is part of a deliberate ethnic cleansing strategy by the Israeli government.