Israeli Jewish settlers set the entrance of a West Bank mosque on fire and spray-painted the mosque walls with hate messages against Palestinians and Muslims early Wednesday , Palestinian officials said . The attack in the village of Deir Istiya was an apparent response to an incident last week in which Israeli settlers , Palestinians and Israeli forces clashed near the village of Qusra , south of Nablus . `` This is not the first time extreme Jewish Israeli settlers set a mosque on fire in the West Bank village of Deir Istiya and spray-painted hate messages , '' said Ghassan Douglas , a Palestinian Authority official who monitors the activities of settlements and settlers in the West Bank . `` The settlers almost on a daily basis do this to isolated Palestinians and damage their properties . '' Douglas said the incident was a so-called `` price tag '' attack -- a term used to describe acts of vandalism by radical Israeli settlers exacting a `` price '' against Palestinian targets or Israeli security forces in response to actions by the Israeli government . The vandals spray-painted the words `` revenge by blood '' and `` Qusra '' in a reference to last week 's incident , Douglas said . The past two years have seen an increase in extremist Israeli Jewish settler attacks against Christian and Muslim religious sites , in which churches or mosques have been set alight , and against Palestinian property . The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that a `` price tag '' incident had occurred , in which the door to the mosque was damaged and a rug was burned . Graffiti was sprayed on the walls saying `` Arabs out '' and `` regards to Qusra , '' the IDF said . IDF spokesman Peter Lerner condemned the act . `` The incident is deplorable on every level , '' he said . It 's against basic moral standards and jeopardizes safety and security and the stability the IDF is working hard to maintain . '' He said the IDF is taking the incident `` very seriously '' and is determined to prevent a recurrence .
The mosque entrance was set alight , Palestinians official says . The vandals spray-painted the words `` revenge by blood '' on the mosque , he said . Palestinian Authority says it was a so-called `` price tag '' attack . It was an apparent response to clashes daily between Palestinian settlers and Jewish .