West Bank mosque attacked

Worshippers in the village of Al-Mueir near Ramallah was said to have discovered the fire when they arrived at the mosque for morning prayers on Wednesday.

The fire was extinguished immediately, according to the Palestinian news agency Maan, but was said to have consumed much of the first floor and caused damage to another.

Initial suspicions rested on Jewish settlers, although Israeli police said a forensic team and a special "nationalist crime unit" were being hindered by angry villagers.

The mayor of Al-Mueir, Faraj al-Nasaan, was quoted by the AP news agency as saying: "only Jewish settlers would do this." He cited a previous attack by settlers on another mosque in the same village, as well as repeated vandalism of vehicles, buildings and olive groves belonging to Palestinians.

In the past, Israeli ultra-nationalists have said such attacks are reprisals, or a "price tag," for Palestinian violence and attempts by Israeli governments to curb settlement growth.

Worsening security

In separate incident, police said unknown assailants had thrown a petrol bomb overnight at an ancient synagogue in the predominantly Muslim and Christian Arab town of Shfaram, in northern Israel.

It has been a fraught year in Israeli Palestinian relations, most notably with Israel launching a military campaign against militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The fighting lasted for 50 days and resulted in the deaths of more than 2,100 Gaza residents, the majority of them civilians. On the Israeli side, 72 people died.

In Jerusalem more recently, tensions have risen between Palestinians and Israelis over access to one of the city's holiest sites, which includes the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Four people died in attacks using motor vehicles; an Israeli-American baby and a young Ecuadorean woman died in October and two rail commuters were killed earlier this month.

After Israeli police shot dead an Arab Israeli protester in northern Israel on Saturday, Palestinian attackers killed two Israelis in stabbing attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have traded blame for the escalation in violence.

rc/se (AFP, AP, dpa)