ACI MENA, Jul 29, 2025 /
13:14 pm
Israeli settlers attacked the Christian town of Taybeh, east of Ramallah, early Monday in what has become part of a rising wave of violence sweeping through the West Bank.
According to eyewitnesses, a group of settlers infiltrated one of the town’s neighborhoods around 2 a.m. on July 28, set two civilian vehicles on fire, and spray-painted Hebrew graffiti on walls. One message read: “Mughayyir, you will regret it” — a reference to a Palestinian village that was previously targeted in a similar attack.
Jeries Azar, a journalist and one of the victims of the attack, told ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, that flames consumed his car parked outside the house while his family was asleep.
“My biggest fear was for my 2-year-old son. I grabbed him and ran outside through thick smoke. He cried nonstop for over an hour,” Azar said.
He explained that the fire had reached the entrance of his home, making the door unbearably hot and escape extremely difficult.
“We spent about 12 minutes trying to get out through choking smoke,” he recounted, adding that the family had to seek shelter at a neighbor’s house. “I’m still in shock. Officials come and go, but no one follows up or even checks in.”
“All my work equipment, my camera, my tools, are gone. How am I supposed to continue my job? Who’s going to compensate me for my loss? For the car I used every day to drive my wife and get to work?”
The attack came less than three weeks after an attempt to set fire to the area surrounding the historic St. George Church in the center of the town.
Reacting to the incident, the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem expressed “deep concern and condemnation of the repeated assaults targeting Taybeh.” In their statement, they stressed that “these painful crimes are not isolated events but part of an alarming pattern of violence committed by Israeli settlers against the people of the West Bank, including their homes, sacred places, and daily lives.”
They urged Israeli authorities “to hold the perpetrators accountable without delay and to ensure sustainable and effective protection for the residents of Taybeh and other communities vulnerable to settler violence in the West Bank.”
The Palestinian Authority described the attack as an “organized terrorist crime” and blamed the Israeli government for enabling settler aggression.
The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Forum also condemned the assault, calling it a serious escalation and urging an impartial international investigation. The forum warned that such attacks are eroding Palestinian Christians’ confidence in their ability to live with dignity in their homeland.
Last week, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited Taybeh following a prior attack and expressed solidarity with the residents. In response to this most recent incident, German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert commented: “These extremist settlers may claim God gave them the land, but they are nothing more than vile criminals in the eyes of all religions.”
Taybeh, one of the last entirely Christian villages in the Palestinian territories, has suffered a series of assaults in recent months. Activists warn that a continued lack of accountability threatens the future of Christianity in the West Bank.
(Story continues below)
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Meanwhile, the Israeli Knesset recently passed a nonbinding resolution advocating the annexation of the West Bank, triggering international concern over the future of the occupied territories.
This story was first published by ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, and has been translated for and adapted by CNA.
Sanad Sahelia is a freelance journalist with ACI MENA covering Christian communities and their affairs in Palestine and the Holy Land. He has been working for different media outlets for over 26 years.
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