It was 3:00 A.M when the imam of Al-Bir wa al-Ehsan discovered his mosque was on fire. He rushed to call the Palestinian fire department, and firefighters arrived in about ten minutes. They put out the fire and stopped it from spreading to other parts of the mosque, but it had already burnt an interior wall and some furniture.
The settlers who started the fire also sprayed an outer wall of the mosque with the inscription: “Siege on Arabs, not on Jews! The Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people [Am Yisrael]!”.
The damage caused to the mosque is estimated at several thousand shekels.
At around 10:30 A.M, soldiers and police officers came to the mosque, searched it and examined the damage caused by the arson.
Mahmoud 'Abed (50) from al-Birah shared his impressions and feelings in a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad:
The incident has caused fear and concern in the neighborhood. People here feel that their property is at risk. The settlers are exploiting the circumstances created by the coronavirus to vandalize our property, because they know the streets are deserted and everyone is locked down at home.