Church leaders, diplomats condemn Israeli violence in the West Bank Occupied West Bank News

Senior leaders of the church and diplomats called on the Israeli settlers who would receive responsibility during a visit to the Christian town of Taibi in the occupied West Bank, after the settlers intensified attacks on the region in recent weeks.

Representatives of more than 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, Russia, China, Japan, Jordan and the European Union, were among the delegates who visited the village in the West Bank on Monday.

Speaking at Taybeh, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theovilus III and Latin Patriarch Perbatista Bizabala condemned the incident last week when the settlers put fires near the Community Church.

They said that the Israeli authorities had failed to respond to emergency calls to help Palestinian society.

In a separate statement, the patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem demanded an investigation into the incident and called for the settlers accountable by the Israeli authorities, “who facilitate and enable their presence about Taybeh.”

Church leaders also said that the settlers had brought their livestock on the Palestinian territories in the region, set fire to many homes last month, and put a sign “there is no future for you here.”

Nida Ibrahim from the island, which was reported from Doha, said that the church leaders were describing this as a “systematic and targeted attack” against Christians.

Ibrahim said: “About 50,000 of them live in the occupied West Bank, which is a small but very proud minority.” “They consider themselves to be attacked, not only because they are Christians, but because they are Palestinians.”

Ibrahim said that for years the church is trying to “strengthen the steadfastness of Christian society in Palestine.”

“We have seen how the Israeli settlers were pushing them from their lands, outside their homes.”

The settlers, who are often armed, are supported by Israeli army soldiers and regularly carried out attacks against the Palestinians, their lands and properties. Several rights groups have documented repeated cases, as Israeli settlers in the West Bank are rising the Palestinian neighborhoods, towns, burning houses and vehicles.

The attacks have grown in size and density since the Israeli brutal war began on Gaza in October 2023. These attacks also include widespread penetrations by Israeli forces to Palestinian cities and cities through the West Bank that killed hundreds of Palestinians and tens of thousands of thousands.

Bizabala, the best Catholic cleric in Jerusalem, said he believed the West Bank has become a lawless area.

“The only law (in the West Bank) is the power, for those who have power, not the law. We must work for the law to return to this part of the country, so that anyone can appeal the law to enforce their rights,” Bezabala told reporters.

He and Zivilus prayed together in the Church of St. George, whose religious position dates back to centuries, next to the area where the settlers set fires.

The visit comes at a time when the Palestinians report a new increase in settler violence.

On Monday, the Israeli settlers and soldiers launched several other attacks through the West Bank, including in Bethlehem, where the settlers have uprooted hundreds of olive trees in the village of Germany, southeast of the city, and demolished the Israeli authorities from four floors.

The head of the German Village Council, Zayed Kawazba, told the WAFA News Agency that a group of settlers stormed Al-Qarn in central Germany, created four tents and increased nearly 1500 people of olive oil that belongs to families from the Molor and Jabaren.

A day before that, hundreds of the village of Al -Mazra Ash Sharjah, south of Taybah, went down to the funeral of two young men who were killed during a settlement attack on Friday.

The occupied West Bank is home to more than three million Palestinians living under a harsh Israeli military rule, as the Palestinian Authority rules in limited areas of each other by countless Israeli checkpoints.

Israel has so far built more than 100 settlements throughout the West Bank, which reaches about 500,000 Settlers Those who live illegally on the private Palestinian territories.