Palestinians in fear as Israeli forces mount pogroms on West Bank mosques

Naim Ahmed Faraj, along with dozens of worshippers, was standing for the evening (Isha) prayers, when Israeli forces threw tear gas canisters inside their mosque in Madama village near Nablus. Faraj, 66, who suffers from joint and heart ailments, collapsed due to suffocation.Faraj’s son, Mohammed Naim, says his father fell semiconscious and his condition deteriorated after inhaling tear gas. The 66-year-old regained consciousness gradually after he was rushed home inside a car as there were no ambulances available, according to Naim.“The mosque is supposed to be a safe haven where people can pray without being attacked. But lately – and for a long time now – the mosque has become a source of anxiety,” Naim told Al Jazeera, adding that worshippers now fear while going to mosques for prayers amid escalating violence in the occupied West Bank.A suffocating islandThe Madama attack is part of a sharply rising wave of Israeli settler and military pogroms across the occupied territory, which Palestinian sources say are emboldened by extremist government ministers like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.Naim described these raids as daily occurrences, deliberately timed during prayer hou...