Israeli forces discharged tear gas into a West Bank mosque, leaving worshippers struggling to breathe, just hours after settlers attempted to ignite a second mosque in the area.
The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs denounced the ongoing pogroms on Tuesday, labeling them a blatant violation of the sanctity of worship spaces.
Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed worshippers at the Madama mosque, near Nablus, coughing after the tear‑gas assault.
One elderly man was seen bent over while another rushed to assist him.
The ministry said Israeli forces “fired tear‑gas canisters” into the mosque as worshippers gathered for evening prayers, noting that the attack “resulted in several elderly worshippers suffering from suffocation and caused widespread disruption to the congregation.”
The Madama incident followed, by a few hours, an attempt by Israeli settlers to set fire to another mosque in the nearby town of Bazariya.
Photos and video from the Nur al‑Din Zanki Mosque revealed blackened scorch marks around a window and Hebrew slogans sprayed on the exterior walls.
Majed Nasr, a resident living close to the mosque, told AFP that the attack began early Tuesday with a small explosion that ignited a fire inside the mosque building. “We managed to contain the blaze before it could spread to the main upper part of the structure,” he said.
The Religious Affairs Ministry described the act as a “criminal attack” and reported that some 13 mosques have been “violated” by Israeli forces or settlers since the start of 2026.
Local sources informed Anadolu Agency that racist graffiti sprayed at the site included threats against Palestinians and a message aimed at the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, reading: “Huckabee, greetings from the terrorists.”
Last month, Huckabee had characterized Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinians in Qusra and other parts of the occupied West Bank as “terrorists.”
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement after the Madama attack warning of “the dangers of the continued and escalating religious war” being waged by Israeli forces and settlers against religious sites in the occupied West Bank, including the Al‑Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.
The statement added that the “systematic attacks … have crossed all red lines and risk provoking a religious conflict with serious repercussions for the region and the world.”
Settlers also burned vehicles in the town of Beta, south of Nablus, and set fire to a Palestinian vehicle in Nahalin, west of Bethlehem, on Tuesday, according to media reports and online footage.
The attacks occur amid a sharp increase in pogroms by Israeli forces and settlers across the occupied West Bank.
The United Nations reported in August that at least 76 Palestinians have been killed in the territory this year, with roughly 3,800 displaced by settler violence, demolitions and evictions.
It also noted that settler violence has reached “unprecedented levels,” with more than 1,430 attacks resulting in casualties or property damage documented so far this year.
Elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces arrested at least 14 Palestinians, including five in Rummanah, one at the Anab checkpoint, one in Tammun, three in Hebron, two in Bethlehem and two in Nablus.
Israeli forces also uprooted olive trees near Jenin, demolished greenhouses and issued a demolition notice for a home in the town of Idhna.
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