Israeli settlers torch Palestinian home in West Bank

Israeli settlers firebombed the home of a Palestinian family in the southern West Bank overnight, causing extensive damage but no casualties, the village mayor and witnesses said.

Five children and two adults were in the house in Yatta, south of the city of Hebron, at the time of the attack, in which several incendiary devices were hurled into the property through a window.

Anti-Arab graffiti written in Hebrew near the property declared the attack had been "revenge".

Yatta mayor Mussa Mhamra condemned the "racist crime committed by settlers who wanted to kill an entire Palestinian family".

Wednesday's attack bore the hallmarks of so-called "price tag" violence -- a euphemism for nationalist-motivated hate crime by Jewish extremists aimed at Arab property.

Such attacks began as a reaction to state moves against the settlements but have since escalated into a much broader expression of xenophobia, often in response to Palestinian violence.