Settlers Burn Two Mosques in West Bank Village of Qusra
Israeli settlers set fire to two mosques, homes and vehicles in the West Bank village of Qusra and left revenge graffiti, a day after a clash killed two Israelis and four Palestinians.
- Israeli settlers set fire to two mosques overnight in Qusra, an occupied West Bank village.
- Homes and parked vehicles also burned, and revenge graffiti appeared on the walls.
- The Israeli army arrived too late to arrest the attackers, who withdrew to nearby settlements.
- The attack came a day after an armed clash that killed two Israelis and four Palestinians.
For Serbia, which is aligning its foreign policy ever more closely with negotiating chapter 31 and the European Union’s common positions, every fresh escalation in the occupied West Bank is not a distant story but a test of consistency. Belgrade recognized Palestine back in 1989 while maintaining close ties with Israel, so Serbian diplomacy weighs an incident of this gravity on two sides at once. What happened in the village of Qusra, near Nablus, ranks among the most serious settler attacks in recent months.
According to Palestinian residents and local authorities, a group of Israeli settlers entered the village overnight and set fire to two mosques. The flames did not stop at the houses of worship: family homes and parked vehicles burned as well, and graffiti carrying a message of revenge appeared on the remaining walls. Residents fought the fires themselves, while the attackers, the same sources say, had time to leave undisturbed.
What happened in Qusra
Qusra is a village that has for years endured so-called “price tag” attacks, revenge actions by radical settlers aimed at Palestinian property and religious sites. This time the trigger was bloody: the attack came only a day after an armed clash in which, according to available figures, two Israelis and four Palestinians were killed. Judging by the graffiti, the settlers framed the arson as a response to the deaths of their compatriots.
The Israeli military, which holds full security authority in the West Bank, reached the scene too late to arrest anyone. That outcome is nothing new. Palestinian and international organizations have warned for years that attackers rarely face court, even though the incidents take place on territory under Israeli control, often close to military checkpoints.
The location matters for understanding the scale. Nablus and the surrounding villages lie at the heart of the West Bank, in a zone where Palestinian communities and Israeli settlements border one another within a few kilometers. Burning a mosque in such surroundings is not merely an attack on property but a symbolic act that further inflames already tense relations.
Why does this attack matter for Belgrade?
The European Union, whose foreign policy Serbia is expected to follow on its path to membership, has repeatedly condemned settler violence and called on Israel to prosecute the perpetrators. The Union’s High Representative has previously demanded concrete measures, and some member states, France among them, have imposed sanctions on the most extreme settlers. Belgrade has so far refrained from sharp condemnations, guarding its balance between Ramallah and Tel Aviv.
That is precisely where the Serbian angle lies. Every attack of this kind reopens the question of how long Serbia, if it wants a credible European perspective, can stay aside from the Union’s common positions on the Middle East. Qusra is a small village, but reactions to what happened there reach Brussels, Washington and, inevitably, Belgrade.
In moments like these, should Serbia keep its traditional balance, or is it time to align its voice more clearly with its European partners?
