Second suspect held in Israel mosque attack

Police said Sunday a second suspect had been arrested following an arson attack on a mosque in northern Israel a week ago. "The suspect will appear in court on Monday for his remand to be extended," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, without providing further details. Media reports said he was a settler from the occupied West Bank. On Thursday, Rosenfeld announced the arrest of a suspect in the arson attack on the mosque, after a gag order on details of his detention was lifted. He said the suspect, whom he did not name, was arrested on Monday just hours after the pre-dawn attack on the mosque in the Bedouin town of Tuba Zangaria, 10 kilometres (six miles) north of the Sea of Galilee. It caused heavy fire damage and destroyed Muslim holy books. Rosenfeld said the first suspect appeared before a court in Kfar Saba near Tel Aviv, where his remand in custody was extended until October 11. Widespread reports in the Israeli media said the first suspect was an 18-year-old Jewish youth from the Galilee region who was arrested in the West Bank where he attends a Jewish seminary. The perpetrators of the attack scrawled the words "tag" and "revenge" on the mosque walls, in what police described as "a very severe price tag incident" -- the term for acts of vengeance by extremist Jews against Palestinians or Arabs. The desecration sparked a wave of domestic and international condemnation.