Israeli settlers arrested for mosque attack: radio

Assailants vandalised a West Bank mosque on Friday, torching its library and spraying hate messages in Hebrew in an attack blamed on hardline Jews angered by plans to curb settlement building.Clashes erupted as villagers hurled stones at Israeli troops sent to investigate the overnight incident at the mosque in the northern West Bank's Yasuf village. The security forces responded with teargas.One of the slogans sprayed on a wall read: "Get ready to pay the price." Another read: "We will burn you all."

Two Palestinians have been arrested in connection with the grisly murder last month of a young Israeli settler family in the West Bank, Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet said on Sunday.In a briefing document obtained by AFP, the agency said the men had confessed to the murder of five members of the Fogel family at the northern West Bank settlement of Itamar and staged a reconstruction of the slaying.

Vandals spray-painted and torched a mosque in the southern West Bank very early Monday in an attack Palestinian witnesses and officials blamed on Israeli settlers.They said six armed men in a white car drove into Beit Fajjar village near Bethlehem at 3:00 am (0100 GMT) and spray-painted Hebrew insults on the walls before setting the building alight.Some of the group were wearing Jewish skullcaps and at least one wore a mask, they said, adding that the men appeared to be Israeli settlers.

Investigations have shown that arson was the most likely cause of a fire at a mosque in the northern West Bank, Israeli firefighters who probed the incident said on Friday.Israeli investigators initially suggested Tuesday's fire at a mosque in the town of Lubban ash-Sharqiya could have been caused by a short-circuit, but Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas blamed it on hardline Jewish settlers and warned that it threatened the peace process.

JERUSALEM — Israel has given preliminary approval to build nearly 300 housing units in a West Bank settlement, a spokesman said Thursday, bringing a Palestinian rebuke and possibly complicating U.S. efforts to relaunch Mideast peace talks. The approval came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Israel’s chief negotiator in Rome. The negotiator, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni played down the new housing approval.

Two cars were torched in the northern West Bank on Friday in what Palestinian security services say is the latest of several attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied territory.The words "price tag" were scrawled in Hebrew on a nearby wall, a reference to hardline settlers' policy to punish Palestinians whenever the Israeli government threatens to curb Jewish settlement activity.The Israeli army confirmed that attackers burned two cars in the Palestinian village of Jinsafut, which is located near several settlements.

Nick Kristof from the West Bank:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the desecration of a mosque in a village in the occupied West Bank by suspected Jewish settlers.In a statement, he "vigorously denounced the aggression against the mosque" and said he had "told the security forces to act with determination to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice."