Ramallah, Oct 14 (IANS/EFE): A group of radical Jewish settlers Tuesday torched a mosque south of the Palestinian city of Nablus, officials said.

The settlers broke the doors and windows of the Abu Baher Sadik mosque in the town of Kfar Akraba and set it on fire after writing racist slogans on the walls, said Rassam Doglas, a member of the Palestinian National Authority in the area.

Attacks by radical settlers on Palestinian property have increased this year, especially in the days before the visit of Pope Francis last May.

Jewish radicals in July killed a Palestinian youth who was abducted in Jerusalem and was burned to death, in revenge for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli students in Gush Etzion, near the Palestinian town of Hebron.

Israeli leftist and human rights groups have accused the government of inactivity in the face of attacks by Jewish settlers.

Tuesday's attack on the mosque came only hours after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said in Jerusalem that colonisation was illegal under international law and urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to put an end to settlements which are an obstacle to peace.