A mosque burns at Mukhmas as the army sends a division to the olive harvest
The IDF says no suspects were identified. The chief of staff says settler violence must be eradicated using every tool available to the state.
Settlers set fire to a mosque, a car and an olive tree in Mukhmas, east of Ramallah, shortly after midnight on Wednesday 14 October, and sprayed Hebrew nationalist graffiti reading “just because we are quiet doesn’t mean we are asleep,” “we didn’t go anywhere,” “Regards, Susya” and “Evacuation = Messy.” AFP had a journalist on site and photographed the slogans. Atta Kanaan, a resident who lives fifty metres from the mosque, told the agency: “A fire was burning fiercely, and we called the fire brigade. Young men rushed to help us with fire extinguishers, and we managed to contain part of the fire before the flames engulfed the entire mosque.” The IDF said forces arrived, no suspects were identified and an investigation was opened. Attribution to settlers rests on Palestinian accounts and is carried by Israeli outlets as alleged. Haaretz, alone, reports the arson came five hours after notice was given of a planned US civil lawsuit on behalf of American citizens from Mukhmas harmed by settler attacks; the timing is documented, the causal link is not.
Hours later, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir told a situational assessment at Central Command that the 98th Division has been deployed to the West Bank to increase the IDF’s presence during the harvest. “The IDF will continue to act to enable the harvest to take place while maintaining public order and the security of all populations in the area,” he said. “Harming and committing violence against innocent people does not reflect the Israeli spirit or the Jewish spirit.” Settler attacks, he said, “must be condemned and eradicated using every tool available to the State of Israel.” Two days earlier, Defence Minister Israel Katz had described the IDF’s presence in depopulated West Bank refugee camps as “permanent” and said it was not the High Court’s business to intervene. Palestinian agency PNN, via the Jerusalem Post, reported further allegations around Mukhmas of a shepherd chased, sheep theft attempted and olives taken; Kan reported a separate incident of masked settlers allegedly posing as soldiers.
Assessment: The gap to measure is between the verb and the arrest sheet. “Eradicated using every tool available to the State of Israel” is the strongest formulation an Israeli chief of staff has available, delivered on a day when the army’s own statement recorded that no suspects were identified at a burned mosque where a wire-service photographer was present within hours. A division deployed for the harvest is a presence decision, not an enforcement one, and the two commitments are made by different authorities: Zamir speaks for the IDF, Katz has already told the court the camps are a political question. Note also who is not voting on 27 October.