LONDON

Residents of Taybeh, the last entirely Christian village in the West Bank, say they have come under repeated attack by illegal Israeli settlers in recent weeks, with fires, property destruction, and incursions reported throughout the area.

Speaking to Vatican News on Friday, Palestinian Christian activist Ihab Hassan, originally from the nearby city of Ramallah, described a sharp escalation in violence targeting the village of roughly 1,300 people.

On the night of 25 June, fires were lit near Taybeh’s entrance. Just weeks later, another blaze broke out close to the ruins of the 5th-century Church of St. George.

Local residents and clergy have blamed both incidents on Israeli settlers, and Hassan has collected and shared video footage online to back up his claims.

“Violent attacks by settlers in the region are not new,” said Hassan, adding that the unrest has already forced around 10 families to leave the village.

“Recently,” he said, “the violence has escalated, and there have been ‘constant, daily’ attacks on the villages surrounding Taybeh.”

On June 25, according to Hassan, illegal Israeli settlers attacked the nearby village of Kafr Malik, killing three Palestinians.

Footage shared by Hassan appears to show the attackers moving on to Taybeh, where vehicles were set ablaze at the village’s edge.

Further attacks followed, residents say, with illegal Israeli settlers reportedly driving cattle onto private lands in Taybeh. “They literally invaded the backyards of these people,” Hassan told Vatican News.

“Violence by Israeli settlers is sometimes justified -- however unfairly -- on the basis that it is a response to Palestinian aggression,” he said. “In the case of Taybeh, he stressed, it is impossible to make such an excuse. ‘The Christian village of Taybeh is really the most peaceful, quiet town in the entire area,’ he said. ‘These are peaceful, lovely people.’”

“It’s the settlers who are extremists,” Hassan added, noting that “many Israeli officials share this judgement.”

He pointed out that some of those involved were so militant that former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who has been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court, had previously placed them in administrative detention.

The Israeli army and illegal settlers have escalated their attacks in the occupied West Bank against Palestinians, their holy sites, and property, including in East Jerusalem, killing at least 1,006 Palestinians and injuring over 7,000.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.