Zionist Israeli settlers spray graffiti on West Bank mosques

Extremist Israeli settlers have desecrated two Palestinian mosques on the outskirts of the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Early on Sunday, a group of vandals sprayed graffiti on one of the walls of the Bilal bin Rabah mosque in Tuku village. They even scrawled a threat that Palestinian stone-throwers would ‘pay the price’ unless they stopped, Ma’an news agency reported.

Settlers also wrote similar slogans on the Salah al-Din al-Ayoubi mosque in the area, and slashed the tires of two cars parked in the street.

Locals said Israeli soldiers guarded the extremist settlers during the acts of vandalism.

In recent years, extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank have often assaulted Palestinians and vandalized their property under the so-called “price tag” policy. However, the Tel Aviv regime rarely detains the assailants.

The Israeli regime maintains a defiant stand on the issue of its illegal settlements on Palestinian land as it refuses to freeze settlement expansion. Tel Aviv has come under repeated and widespread international condemnation over the issue.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).