‘Price-tag’ vandals target second mosque this week

Two vehicles reportedly set on fire, vandals spray-paint mosque in W. Bank; attack follows vandalism at IDF base.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, YAAKOV LAPPIN
price tag graffiti mosque 311 R (photo credit: REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini)
price tag graffiti mosque 311 R
(photo credit: REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini)
Price-tag vandals targeted a second mosque this week when they vandalized a Muslim house of worship in the West Bank Palestinian village of Yatma, near Nablus early Thursday morning.
The Hebrew words “price-tag” and “Migron” were scrawled in large, black letters on the mosque’s stone-wall.
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On Monday vandals sprayed similar graffiti on the wall of a mosque in the Palestinian village of Qusara, also near Nablus. In that instance windows were smashed and tires were burned inside the mosque.
It is assumed that both acts of vandalism were perpetuated by right-wing extremists angered by the IDF demolition of three homes at the Migron outpost on Monday.
Separately, price-tag vandals also infiltrated a military base outside the Beit-El settlement on Wednesday and damaged 13 military vehicles.
On Thursday, two Palestinian vehicles were torched in the Palestinian village of Qablan in the West Bank. It is assumed that this also a price-tag attack.
Police and the IDF are investigating the attack. Police are becoming increasingly concerned by far-right attacks in the area, and announced the establishment of a special task force on Wednesday to track down those behind the pricetag attacks.
Separately, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees reported that the civil administration had demolished five residential structures in the West Bank Bedouin village of Um al Khayer near Hebron, and three water cisterns in the village of As Samu.