At dawn on Monday, a group of fanatic, illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers invaded the town of Taybeh, east of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, before they burned two Palestinian cars and spray-painted racist graffiti.
Media sources reported that the colonizers attacked and attempted to break into homes before vandalizing walls with racist slogans. Families were terrorized in their sleep as their property was defaced and invaded.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the renewed settler assault on Taybeh, denouncing it as a disregard for international reactions following previous terrorist attacks on the town, its cemeteries, and its historic church.
In a press statement issued Monday, the ministry called for decisive international measures to compel the Israeli government to halt these assaults and crimes, and to ensure the arrest and prosecution of those responsible.
On July 7th, a group of colonizers set fire near Taybeh’s historic Saint George Church, which dates to the fifth century, including damage to its adjoining graveyard.
Earlier, on June 4th, colonizers established a new outpost on the ruins of homes belonging to Palestinian families who had been forcibly displaced following repeated violations.
On July 14th, the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine condemned the attacks, stating they reflect a systematic policy targeting Palestinians and urged immediate international intervention.
The Committee participated in a solidarity vigil held to protest the repeated Israeli violations against Taybeh’s Christian community and their holy sites. (Taybeh has an all Christian population, the only 100% Christian village in Palestine.)
It emphasized that the targeting of Christian presence in Palestine is no longer an isolated incident but part of a calculated campaign, one that demands a serious and coordinated response from the global community, especially considering the alarming escalation by groups of illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers in the town.
The vigil was attended by various patriarchs and church officials in occupied Jerusalem, in addition to many diplomats from more than twenty countries, denouncing the serious escalating in the crimes committed by the colonizers in the town, including its homes, churches and cemeteries.
Patriarch Theophilos III read a joint statement from the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, condemning the Israeli assaults and stressing the need to preserve Christian presence in the Holy Land. He reaffirmed ongoing church efforts to protect this heritage amid systematic threats.
