JERUSALEM: Suspected Jewish extremists torched a West Bank mosque on Wednesday.

Unrest has escalated in recent days, spreading from annexed east Jerusalem to the occupied West Bank and Arab communities across Israel, raising fears of a new Palestinian uprising.

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The pre-dawn arson attack on the mosque in a village between Ramallah and Nablus was blamed by Palestinian security officials on extremist Jewish settlers.

The attack came two days after Palestinian knife attacks killed a settler in the southern Western Bank and an Israeli soldier in Tel Aviv.

Village council head Faraj Nassan said the fire began before dawn. “When we got there, we couldn’t even get close because the fire was raging so strongly. We tried to put it out but we couldn’t because it was so fierce.

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“By the time the civil defence (firefighters) got there, the ground floor was completely burnt out.”

Another mosque in the village was set ablaze by suspected extremists in 2012, officials said.

Also overnight, a molotov cocktail was thrown at an ancient synagogue in the Arab Israeli town of Shfaram, causing minor damage, police said. The structure is not currently used for worship.

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The mosque attack came as Palestinian anger was already running high after Israeli troops shot dead a 22-year-old protester in the southern West Bank on Tuesday.

Since the current round of violence began five months ago with the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by militants, at least 17 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to a count.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2014