Israeli Forces Tear-Gas Worshippers Inside Nablus-Area Mosque as Settlers Torch Another Nearby

Naim Ahmed Faraj was standing for evening prayers in Madama village, near Nablus, when Israeli forces threw tear gas canisters inside the mosque. The 66-year-old, who has joint and heart conditions, collapsed from suffocation. There were no ambulances available, so his son drove him home, according to his son Mohammed Naim.

"The mosque is supposed to be a safe haven where people can pray without being attacked. But lately, and for a long time now, the mosque has become a source of anxiety," Mohammed Naim told Al Jazeera.

Naim said the raids happen daily and are timed to prayer hours to maximize panic, and that soldiers and settlers act in coordination. He described Madama as encircled by settlements, a bypass road and the army, with no way out.

Hours after the Madama attack, settlers raided the Imad al-Din Zanki mosque in nearby Bazariya, pouring flammable liquid onto the ground floor and igniting it. Taysir Safarini, former head of the Bazariya village council, said neighbors woke to the flames and alerted civil defense crews in Anabta while trying to put out the fire themselves. Attackers sprayed Hebrew graffiti on the walls, including threats to kill Arabs and a line addressed to U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee: "Huckabee, greetings from the terrorists." Huckabee, a longtime supporter of Israeli settlements, recently called some settlers "terrorists."

The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs says at least 13 mosques have been vandalized or burned by settlers and Israeli forces since the start of the year. A separate August ministry report recorded 26 incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and 155 instances in which the call to prayer was banned at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. The ministry called the mosque attacks a violation of international law.

The United Nations has recorded at least 76 Palestinians killed in the West Bank this year, including 18 children, and roughly 3,800 people displaced. The UN also documented more than 1,450 settler attacks causing about 1,040 injuries; the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission puts the total closer to 6,000, a figure that is disputed and not independently verified.

Last week, far-right Knesset member Zvi Sukkot stormed Madama and smashed a Palestinian memorial with a sledgehammer, according to the report. The attacks come as Israeli politicians campaign ahead of next month's general election. More than 750,000 settlers now live in West Bank settlements considered illegal under international law. The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned the pattern of attacks on mosques risks triggering wider religious conflict.