Al-Hamadiyya Mosque is the largest mosque

Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

 in the Palestinian

Palestinian people

The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...

 town of al-Khader

Al-Khader, Bethlehem

Al-Khader is a Palestinian town in the Bethlehem Governorate in the south-central West Bank. It is located west of Bethlehem. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 9,774 in 2007.-History:...

, west of Bethlehem

Bethlehem

Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...

 and serves the majority of the town's residents. The mosque was built in the early 15th century and was restored by the town's residents in the 1990s.

According to the International Middle East Media Center

International Middle East Media Center

The International Middle East Media Center is an independent news organisation run by Palestinians living in the Palestinian territories, working together with international journalists, who report on events in both Israel and the Palestinian territories...

, in 2008, a group of Israeli settlers from Efrata and El'azar

Elazar, Gush Etzion

Elazar is an Israeli settlement in the Judean Hills region of the West Bank, 18 kilometers south of Jerusalem in the Gush Etzion cluster of settlements. A communal settlement, it has around 450 families living there...

 torched the mosque using stolen beehives as fuel. The mosque's imam

Imam

An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...

 and local Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 leadership requested help from the Palestinian National Authority

Palestinian National Authority

The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip...

to help rebuild the mosque and to protect al-Khader from future attacks.