NABLUS Israeli settlers desecrated a mosque on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian security officials said.

The Israeli army confirmed that “anonymous suspects” scrawled graffiti, including a Jewish star of David alongside the name of the Prophet Mohammed written in Hebrew.

The Palestinian and the Israeli officials said the suspects set fire to two cars outside the mosque in Huwara, near Nablus, according to the officials. The Palestinian security sources blamed the act of vandalism on Israeli settlers.

Israeli soldiers showed up after the attack and erased the graffiti. They prevented journalists from taking photographs until they completed the cleanup.

The Israeli military commander for the West Bank, Brigadier General Nitzan Alon “ordered an immediate investigation into the incident, condemned the acts and said that those responsible should be brought to justice,” the army said in a statement.

In December, settlers vandalised another mosque in the northern West Bank village of Yasuf, torching Muslim holy books and spraying hate messages in Hebrew. —AFP