Updated

Palestinian residents of as West Bank village say masked Jewish settlers torched three cars and defaced a mosque during an overnight attack.

Nizam Ali, a resident of Burka, says he woke up around 1 a.m. Thursday and saw five masked settlers setting his car on fire. He says one of the settlers had a rifle.

The settlers also spraypainted the phrase, "Redemption of Zion, I love Tomer Hazan" on the wall of the village mosque. Hazan was an Israeli soldier recently abducted and killed by a Palestinian acquaintance.

Extremist settlers in the West Bank frequently rampage through Palestinian villages. Israeli authorities have had little success catching the perpetrators.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the attack is being investigated as a "criminal act with nationalistic motives."