The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the escalation of settler attacks, the latest of which involved the burning of a mosque and a commercial facility over the past few days. This attack is part of a broader violence supported by the Israeli government across the West Bank.
These two crimes are part of a wider strategy of violence carried out by settlers under the protection of the Israeli Occupation Forces. They represent a direct extension of the genocidal, ethnically cleansing, and apartheid policies imposed on Palestinians. These incidents are not isolated, but rather components of a systematic campaign aimed at displacing the indigenous population and forcibly subjugating the land.
On Thursday at dawn, 13 November 2025, Hajja Hamidah Naffa’a Mosque in Deir Istiya village, northern Salfit, was set on fire in an organized attack carried out by a group of settlers.
According to PCHR’s investigations, the settlers broke the mosque doors and poured incendiary materials at the western entrance, igniting large portions of the interior. The fire damaged internal walls, furniture, and several copies of the Quran. In addition, the attackers wrote racist and inciting slogans on the walls, including the word “Revenge.”
The mosque is located approximately 3 kilometers from the northern entrance of Deir Istiya village or the eastern entrance of Kafr Haris village. This distance highlights the audacity and danger inherent in these attacks, which have escalated beyond areas adjacent to settlements and now reach deep into Palestinian residential communities. This reflects a disturbing expansion in the scope of settler attacks on Palestinian places of worship.
In a separate incident, Al-Junaidi Company Marketing Center in Beit Leed village was subjected to a large-scale assault by approximately 50 settlers on 11 November 2025. According to investigations by PCHR, at around 15:00 on that day, dozens of settlers attacked the marketing center via two entrances, jumping over the external fence despite its design to prevent any infiltration.
The settlers set fire to four trucks belonging to the company that were parked in the yard, as well as two private vehicles of the company’s employees, including a Skoda. The attack caused extensive burning to the vehicles, as well as to the surrounding area and equipment of the marketing center.
The company’s General Manager, Mashhoor Abu Khalaf, stated that initial estimates of the losses range between 1.5 and 2 million Israeli shekels. He added that the company is still conducting a comprehensive assessment of the material damage, including vehicles, infrastructure, equipment, and the marketing center’s logistical services.
The attack reflects an explicit attempt to undermine Palestinian economic stability amid the already difficult conditions faced by the Palestinian people, highlighting the settlers’ ongoing policy of targeting Palestinians’ sources of income and economic opportunities.
These attacks come after settlers carried out dozens of assaults during the olive harvest season across the West Bank, as part of a systematic policy aimed at instilling fear and anxiety among Palestinian residents, who live under a constant state of stress, particularly in areas close to settlements.
PCHR emphasizes that these crimes reflect a systematic policy carried out under the IOF’s protection and the complicity of the Israeli judiciary, which has provided—and continues to provide—a legal cover that entrenches impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including policies of forced displacement, ethnic cleansing, and forms of collective punishment targeting Palestinian communities.
PCHR recalls the International Court of Justice’s ruling issued in July 2024, which affirmed that the continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory, including the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, is illegal. The ruling obligated Israel to immediately end its illegal presence and cease all settlement-related violations, including the evacuation of settlers from the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
PCHR reiterates that such crimes require urgent and effective action to halt the IOF and settlers’ crimes in the oPt and to end the apartheid system imposed by Israel on the Palestinian people.
PCHR calls for serious action to hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable before international justice, end the policy of impunity, protect Palestinian civilians, and halt all forms of international support to Israel that enable it to continue its racist and colonial policies.
PCHR emphasizes that the latest decision by the U.S. Department of the Treasury against three Palestinian organizations will not deter its efforts to continue documenting Israeli crimes, pursuing those responsible, and referring them to international justice in accordance with binding legal standards.
