Israeli security forces have detained five Jewish settlers in the West Bank who are suspected of vandalizing a mosque in a nearby Arab village last month, local news service Ynet reported Monday.

The arrests were made in a pre-dawn raid at the Yitzhar settlement, an Orthodox Jewish community located in northern part of the West Bank, during which officers from the police and the Shin Bet security agency also detained another five on suspicion of rioting, added the report.

Among the five suspected vandals, two are students at a local yeshiva, where security officers found violent measures in a search, including spikes, according to the report.

The mid-December attack on the mosque in the village of Yasuf, which saw a hostile mob burn furniture and holy texts and graffiti the walls and floor, drew strong condemnation from across the world. Israel has vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the incident, which was apparently carried out by radical Jewish settlers outraged by the government's recent settlement policy.

The Israeli government late last year declared a ten-month moratorium on new construction projects in West Bank settlements, a move that the Jewish state dubbed a goodwill gesture intended to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiation table and resume the stalled peace process. Yet the move was not only rejected by the Palestinians, who called the partial freeze insufficient, but also opposed by the right-wing camp at home.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2010)