Israel files terrorism charges against two settlers in West Bank rampages

Israeli prosecutors filed terrorism-related charges on Wednesday against two Jewish settlers, one accused of desecrating a mosque and the other of setting a fire in a home, during rampages against Palestinians that drew U.S. calls for accountability.

The spree of vandalism and arson by hundreds of settlers in several villages and towns in the occupied West Bank last month followed the June 20 killing of four Israelis by Hamas gunmen. Some of the Palestinians who lost property were U.S. dual nationals.

One defendant, in his early 30s, was among “a large number (of) rioters” who threw objects at buildings in Orif village, wrecked furniture and windows in its mosque and ripped up copies of the Koran and threw them to the floor, the indictment said.

Their goal was “to arouse fear or shock in the community through a grave blow to the sacrosanct,” it said.

Read more: Reuters