Israel is investigating Palestinian suspicions that a mosque in the West Bank was set alight by Jewish settlers

Arsonists reportedly scrawled Hebrew graffiti on the walls of the mosque in Beit Fajjar, near Bethlehem. The assault comes as Palestinian-Israeli peace talks have faltered over the issue of settlements. Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, housing nearly 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements. Some 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank. Jewish settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. Residents of Beit Fajjar said a group of settlers went into the mosque and set fire to carpets and copies of the Koran. Reports say the word "revenge" was scrawled on the wall in Hebrew. A spokesman for the Israeli military said it was taking the burning of the mosque very seriously. Previous Israeli investigations of mosque attacks have failed to produce results. In April 2010, a mosque was vandalized with Hebrew graffiti, cars were burnt and olive trees uprooted in the village of Hawara, near the Yitzhar settlement. In May 2010, a mosque in the Palestinian village of Lubban al-Sharqiya, near Nablus, was gutted in a fire which also destroyed holy books. No charges were brought against anyone in either case. Some hard-line settlers advocate a "price tag" policy under which they attack Palestinians in retaliation for any Israeli government measure they see as threatening Jewish settlements. The Palestinian leadership has said it will not continue peace talks with Israel unless a freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank resumes, after building started again recently. Israel refused to extend a 10-month partial ban on settlement building in the West Bank which expired recently. Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians resumed in September 2010 after a break of nearly two years.