The marks of the attack on Hamida Mosque, near Deir Istiya in the occupied West Bank, are still scattered on the ground outside.

Charred furniture, lecterns and smoky curls of carpet are piled around the entrance - its guts emptied, and debris cleared, in time for Friday prayers.

Dozens of men arrived for the prayers in a show of defiance - their backs turned towards the scorched and blackened wall.

The imam here, Ahmad Salman, told the BBC the attack on Thursday was a message from Jewish settlers, amid a wave of settler violence across the West Bank.

The message they want to send is that they can reach anywhere - into cities, into villages, that they can kill civilians and burn houses and mosques.

I feel it in my soul, he said. It's not right to touch places of prayer, wherever they are.

But there was a message here, too, for Israel's regional military chief - scrawled in Hebrew on the mosque's exterior wall: We're not afraid of you, Avi Bluth.

Spiralling settler attacks here over the past six weeks have triggered tough warnings from army leaders, along with a handful of arrests and investigations.

But hardline expansionist settlers enjoy government support, which some believe is pushing the West Bank towards a dangerous confrontation.

The annual olive harvest, when Palestinians try to access their farmland, often marks a spike in violence, but the attacks this year have broken UN records.

The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs registered more than 260 settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties or damage to property in October alone - the highest monthly count since they began monitoring in 2006.

Human rights groups say that settler aggression towards Palestinians has risen since the Gaza War began in 2023 after the 7 October Hamas attacks. UN figures suggest that more than 3,200 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced by settler violence and restrictions since then.

In the past few days, there have been several attacks across the West Bank, including an assault by a large crowd of masked men on an industrial estate and Bedouin buildings near Beit Lid. Security cameras filmed them running across the hillside and through the factory gates, where they torched several trucks. The army said they later attacked Israeli soldiers operating nearby.

The Israel police spokesman said four suspects had been arrested. Three have reportedly since been released.

Israeli forces have long been criticised by human rights groups for standing idly by during settler attacks - or even taking part in them.

This week, Israel's chief of staff said he strongly condemned the recent violence by Israeli settlers, calling it a red line and promising to act decisively. The head of the army's central command, Maj Gen Avi Bluth - the man addressed in the graffiti on Hamida Mosque - said violent acts by what he called anarchist fringe youth were unacceptable and extremely serious and must be dealt with firmly.

However, some hardline settlers see these comments as a betrayal, arguing that the recent focus on settler violence is overblown. Amichai Luria, a long-time settler from Ma'ale Levona, expressed his dissatisfaction with the portrayal of the situation.

As worshippers left the Hamida Mosque after Friday prayers, Israeli activists arrived to show solidarity. Martin Goldberg, originally from London, underscored the severity of the situation, noting that while attacks may be downplayed by some, the reality on the ground paints a different picture.

This increasingly tense atmosphere shows the fragility of social cohesion within Israel as external conflicts continue to escalate in the volatile region.

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