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Settlers Blamed as West Bank Mosque Damaged by Arson

Israeli border police secure the area outside Jerusalem's Old City where officers fatally shot a man they believed was armed May 30, 2020. REUTERS/Sinan Abu Mayzer
Israeli border police secure the area outside Jerusalem's Old City where officers fatally shot a man they believed was armed May 30, 2020. REUTERS/Sinan Abu Mayzer
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Settlers Blamed as West Bank Mosque Damaged by Arson

Israeli border police secure the area outside Jerusalem's Old City where officers fatally shot a man they believed was armed May 30, 2020. REUTERS/Sinan Abu Mayzer
Israeli border police secure the area outside Jerusalem's Old City where officers fatally shot a man they believed was armed May 30, 2020. REUTERS/Sinan Abu Mayzer

A section of a mosque in the occupied West Bank was set on fire on Monday, and Palestinian officials accused Israeli settlers of being behind the attack.

"The Land of Israel for the People of Israel," read part of a slogan sprayed in Hebrew on the mosque's wall, a reference to a biblical, historical and political claim to an area that includes the West Bank.

Israeli cabinet minister Amir Peretz condemned the incident on Twitter, calling for "the criminals and hatemongers" responsible for the blaze in the city of Al-Bireh to be brought to justice. He did not explicitly mention settlers in his tweet.

A Palestinian emergency services official said a bathroom area of Al-Bir and Al-Thsan mosque was burned after flammable liquid was poured through a smashed window before dawn.

Reuters quoted him as saying that residents living near the mosque and firefighters extinguished the flames, and the mosque's prayer area was undamaged.

The Palestinian Religious Affairs Ministry and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Jewish settlers of setting the blaze.

"This is racism and apartheid," Erekat said in a statement.

Slogans in Hebrew similar to the one spray-painted in black outside the mosque have been used in previous attacks on Palestinian property which Israeli police suspect were carried out by Israeli ultranationalists in the West Bank.

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US Eases Restrictions on Syria While Keeping Sanctions in Place

A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
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US Eases Restrictions on Syria While Keeping Sanctions in Place

A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)

The US on Monday eased some restrictions on Syria's transitional government to allow the entry of humanitarian aid after opposition factions ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad last month.

The US Treasury issued a general license, lasting six months, that authorizes certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transactions.

The move does not lift sanctions on the nation that has been battered by more than a decade of war, but indicates a limited show of US support for the new transitional government.

The general license underscores America's commitment to ensuring its sanctions “do not impede activities to meet basic human needs, including the provision of public services or humanitarian assistance,” a Treasury Department statement reads.

Since Assad's ouster, representatives from the nation's new de facto authorities have said that the new Syria will be inclusive and open to the world.

The US has gradually lifted some penalties since Assad departed Syria for protection in Russia. The Biden administration in December decided to drop a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month.

The announcement followed a meeting in Damascus between al-Sharaa, who was once aligned with al-Qaeda, and the top US diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, who led the first US diplomatic delegation into Syria since Assad’s ouster. The US and UN have long designated HTS as a terrorist organization.

HTS led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad’s downfall, Syria’s uprising and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people.

Much of the world ended diplomatic relations with Assad because of his crackdown on protesters, and sanctioned him and his Russian and Iranian associates.

Syria’s infrastructure has been battered, with power cuts rampant in the country and some 90% of its population living in poverty. About half the population won’t know where its next meal will come from, as inflation surges.

The pressure to lift sanctions has mounted in recent years as aid agencies continue to cut programs due to donor fatigue and a massive 2023 earthquake that rocked Syria and Türkiye. The tremor killed over 59,000 people and destroyed critical infrastructure that couldn’t be fixed due to sanctions and overcompliance, despite the US announcing some humanitarian exemptions.