Britain's Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, has expressed severe disquiet about an attack on a mosque in the West Bank town of Jaba this week.

This week the mosque was subjected to an arson attack and was vandalised with "price tag" grafitti.

Mr Burt said: “I condemn this deplorable and deliberately provocative act. I welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu’s strong condemnation of the incident, and the commitment of the Israeli authorities to bring the criminals responsible to justice.

"I call on them to do this in all such cases occurring in the areas under Israeli control. This incident is part of a worrying trend of violence by extremist Israeli settlers -- including the shooting of two Palestinians last month. These incidents must stop, as must the defacing of synagogues.”

A delegation from Rabbis for Human Rights visited Jaba today to express solidarity and apology.