JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli police arrested two more teenagers from the West Bank in connection with last month’s torching of a Palestinian mosque.
The teens arrested in the northern West Bank settlement of Yitzhar early Wednesday brings to eight the number of people who have been arrested in the attack.
Late Sunday night, dozens of Israeli security forces arrested five settlers at two Yitzhar yeshivas in a planned raid. Two of the five were minors. Four of those arrested were ordered to be held in police custody.
Weapons were found at one of the yeshivas, according to reports.
The detainees are accused of burning down a mosque in the nearby village of Yasuf, allegedly in retaliation for an Israeli government-imposed freeze on building in the settlements.
In the December mosque attack, arsonists struck before dawn on a Friday, burning furniture, prayer rugs and holy texts, and defacing the mosque’s walls. The attack led to retaliatory violence, including the stabbing of an Israeli woman at a bus stop. The arson attack was internationally condemned.
