- Title: MIDEAST-PALESTINIANS/ISRAEL-MOSQUE Palestinian mosque damaged as tensions flare
- Date: 12th November 2014
- Summary: MGHAYR VILLAGE, WEST BANK (NOVEMBER 12, 2014) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE MGHAYR MOSQUE PEOPLE INSIDE MOSQUE, AS IT WAS BURNT IN AN ATTACK VARIOUS OF PEOPLE MOVING BURNT BOOKS BURNT KORAN DAMAGES IN THE LIBRARY OF THE MOSQUE, AFTER BEING BURNT VARIOUS OF ASH AFTER THE BURNING PEOPLE INSIDE MOSQUE BLACK ASH ON WINDOW OF MOSQUE BURNT MOSQUE, PEOPLE LEAVING MOSQUE (SOUNDBITE) (
- Embargoed: 27th November 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: West bank
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVABLNT7GE67FK42SOKEX094OKZW
- Story Text: A Palestinian mosque was damaged in an arson attacks, police and local residents said on Wednesday (November 12), causing no casualties but stoking tensions that have flared over a contested Jerusalem shrine.
Youths entered Mghayr village in the occupied West Bank and set a fire which consumed the ground floor of the mosque before residents put it out, Mayor Faraj Na'asan told Reuters.
"At 3:30 am, a neighbour who lives near the mosque called us and told us that fire is billowing from the mosque. We called all the villagers and the young men to help put out the fire. But unfortunately we could not put out the fire, until the firefighters arrived at the site. The fire damaged everything inside the mosque," he said.
There has been repeated vandalism of cars and buildings in Mghayr and the village's second mosque was partially torched two years ago, Na'asan said, blaming Israelis from nearby Jewish settlements.
Israeli ultra-nationalists say such so-called "price tag" attacks are reprisals for Palestinian violence or for any attempt by Israeli governments to curb settlement growth.
The vandalism has at times also targeted Christian sites and Israeli military facilities.
The Israeli police said it had sent a forensic team and a special "nationalist-crime unit" -- set up last year to counter "price tag" incidents -- to Mghayr, but that angry villagers had prevented them from entering the area.
Separately, police said, unknown assailants threw a petrol bomb overnight at an ancient synagogue in Shfaram, a predominantly Muslim and Christian Arab town in northern Israel. There was small-scale damage and police were investigating.
Tension has risen between Palestinians and Israelis in recent weeks as disputes have mounted over Jewish access to one of Jerusalem's holiest sites, revered by Muslims as Noble Sanctuary, where al-Aqsa mosque stands, and by Jews as the Temple Mount, where their biblical temples once stood.
Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian during clashes on Tuesday (Nove in the West Bank, a day after Palestinian assailants fatally stabbed an Israeli soldier and a woman in separate attacks that raised fears of a new uprising.
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