On Monday, a delegation of senior church leaders and diplomats from over 20 countries, including the UK, China, Russia, Japan, Jordan, and the EU, visited Taybeh, a Christian-majority town in the occupied West Bank, to denounce escalating attacks by Israeli settlers. The visit highlighted growing concerns over targeted violence against the region’s Christian communities amid heightened tensions linked to the ongoing Gaza conflict.

Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III and Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa led the delegation, condemning Israeli authorities for failing to protect Taybeh’s residents. They pointed to a recent incident where settlers allegedly set fire to land near the town’s church and allowed cattle to graze on private Palestinian property. “These acts are not just property violations but deliberate attacks on a community known for its peaceful coexistence,” Patriarch Theophilos III stated.

In a joint statement, Jerusalem’s Patriarchs and Heads of Churches demanded a transparent investigation and accountability for the perpetrators, alleging that settler actions are enabled by state policies. Taybeh, located northeast of Ramallah, is one of the few remaining Christian enclaves in the West Bank, and church leaders described the attacks as part of a broader campaign of harassment and land seizures aimed at displacing Christians.

Nida Ibrahim, reporting for Al Jazeera from Doha, emphasized that the Christian community views these incidents as both religious intolerance and an extension of the broader Israeli occupation. “They feel targeted not only as Christians but as Palestinians,” she said. Rights groups and local media have reported a surge in settler violence—often backed by Israeli soldiers—against Palestinian homes, farmland, and vehicles since Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began in October 2024. The violence has resulted in hundreds of Palestinian deaths and displaced tens of thousands across the West Bank.

Recent settler attacks include the uprooting of over 1,500 olive saplings in al-Maniya near Bethlehem and the establishment of tents in a display of dominance, affecting families like the al-Motawer and Jabarin. In Al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya, mourners gathered for the funeral of two young men killed in a settler attack on Friday. Patriarch Pizzaballa, the region’s highest-ranking Catholic official, decried the situation as a descent into “lawlessness,” urging the restoration of the rule of law to ensure justice for all.

The West Bank, home to over three million Palestinians, remains under stringent Israeli military control, with the Palestinian Authority managing limited areas fragmented by checkpoints and over 100 illegal settlements housing more than 500,000 Israeli settlers. The delegation called on the international community to urgently protect vulnerable West Bank communities and uphold international law to address the escalating crisis.