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Israeli settlers have been accused of attacking a mosque in the occupied West Bank, setting alight carpets and spraying Hebrew graffiti on its walls.
Palestinian residents of al-Mughayyir village awoke for dawn prayers to find smoke billowing from the mosque, Darwish Haj Mohammed, the mosque imam, said on Tuesday.
"There are slogans which show without doubt that settlers entered the mosque and burned it," Mohammed said, adding that the arsonists had broken in through the windows.
Hebrew graffiti scrawled on the mosque wall read "Price tag - Eley Ain", signaling the attack had been mounted in retribution for the removal by the Israeli authorities of a structure at Eley Ain, a nearby settlement outpost, last week.
An Israeli police spokesman said an investigation had been launched at the site in the village, northeast of Ramallah.
But in previous cases some settlers have been detained for questioning but later released without charge.
UN condemnation
Israeli settlers have adopted the slogan "price tag" for attacks against Palestinians and their property mounted in retaliation for any steps by the Israeli government against their settlements built on land Israel captured in the 1967 war.
The United Nations condemned the desecration of the mosque.
"The actions of Israeli extremists are highly provocative and threatening," Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said in a statement.
"Consistent with its obligations under international law as the occupying power, the Israeli government must ensure accountability of those responsible and protect the human rights of Palestinians and their property, including religious sites."
The United States also condemned the attack.
"The United States strongly condemns the attack on a mosque in the West Bank earlier today. As we have long maintained, all sides must do all they can to prevent attacks and incitement of this kind,” Tommy Vietor, a national Security Council spokesman, said.
"We note the Israeli government’s condemnation of this attack and call for the perpetrators to be held accountable."
Settlers have attacked at least five mosques in the West Bank in the last 18 months, Mohammed Daraghmeh, head of the mosques department in the Palestinian Authority's religious endowments ministry, said.
Netanyahu's government has continued a policy of removing some settlement "outposts", or settlements erected without permits.
However, he has largely followed an aggressive settlement policy in the West Bank despite international pressure.
Last month on an official visit to the US, he differed with Barack Obama, the US president, on the issue of settlement and the need for Israel to accept the 1967 borders as the starting point for 'peace talks'.
PHOTO CAPTION
A Palestinian man stands next to Hebrew graffiti sprayed on the wall of a mosque in West Bank village of al-Mughayyir near Ramallah June 7, 2011.
Al-Jazeera
