Jerusalem: Israeli police raided a Jewish settlement in the West Bank on Monday to arrest four seminary students on suspicion of involvement in last month`s desecration of a Palestinian mosque, police sources said.
They said six other students at Yitzhar settlement were questioned over the December 10 incident in the village of Yasuf, and then freed as they were minors. Another teenage suspect from a West Bank settlement was already in police custody.
The torching of carpets and holy books in Yasuf`s mosque had stirred up Palestinian indignation at a time of stalled peace talks with Israel. Israel pledged to catch the perpetrators.
Hebrew graffiti left at the mosque called the attack a "price tag" -- settler code for provocations meant to scuttle any Israeli plan to cede occupied land to the Palestinians.
Mickey Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, confirmed there had been four arrests at Yitzhar "on suspicion of deliberate damage to property."
Bureau Report
