on land that is not theirs, even here near on lands belonging to St. George’s church.
© Collectif Taybeh
The month of July was rich in emotions for Palestinian Christians. Settler attacks on the village of Taybeh, tank fire on the church of the Latin parish in Gaza. All in less than a week. Have Christians become a target in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Our editor-in-chief delivers a rarely heard reading when emotion is at its peak.
- Marie-Armelle Beaulieu
"There are facts. 18 dead in a bombardment that hit the church of Saint-Porphyre. Two people killed by elite killers in the courtyard of the Holy Family. Three dead again in the bombing of the church. Christians are being killed in this war, these are facts."
On his return from his third visit to Gaza in two years and after the parish had been the subject of tank fire the day before, the Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, was questioned by journalists. "Are Christians targeted?" To the Italian daily Corriere della Sera he replied: "We are not a target. They (the Israelis) say it was a mistake. Even if everyone here thinks that's not the case."
The month of July 2025 saw the image of the Israeli government's action deteriorate in the minds of the world's Christians, even those who still supported it. Time and again, the Christians of the Holy Land have been victims of attacks, such as those of the settlers on the land of the Christian village of Taybeh, and the firing of cannons on the Catholic church in Gaza.
Are Christians targeted as such? It's unlikely.
The reality regarding settlements since October 7, and according to the NGOs that follow the case, is that there are 47 new illegal outposts, 13 previous outposts legalized by the government in March 2025 (5 had been legalized in 2024), and there are 8,271 construction units approved in the existing settlements. Between October 7, 2023 and December 31, 2024, there were 1,860 recorded incidents of settler violence, an average of about 4 attacks per day.
Do the settlers of the illegal outpost established on the land of Taybeh know that the village is Christian? Basically, they know that these lands are Arab lands, but they know that they can consider them as a fringe benefit. They know that, no matter what they do, the Israeli army will not intervene and ask them to graze their cows elsewhere. They know that if Arab villagers were to complain, they would be arrested. At the end of July, the Israeli parliament adopted a symbolic resolution, a prelude to the annexation of the West Bank. The text affirms Israel's "natural, historical and legal right" to these territories, described as "an inseparable part of the historical, cultural and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people". The colonists were exultant, who would hold them back from Taybeh or elsewhere?
As for the church in Gaza, after examining the position of the shot taken at the Church, how can we not believe that it was not deliberately aimed at the Cross? We are talking about the firing of a battle tank. You don't have to graduate from [the military academy of] Saint-Cyr to be suspicious about it being "an accidental diversion of ammunition." Those words of the Israeli investigation, are a joke. How can we not think of the video, posted on Tik Tok by an Israeli soldier, of the destruction of the minaret of a mosque with this inlaid comment: "What to do when the tank crew is bored in Gaza?" So yes, in the case of this church, it may be a Christian symbol that was targeted by brainless soldiers who think they can do anything because they are on the right side of the crosshairs. And then again, , and we know it only too well, whatever they do, destroy or kill, it will be without the slightest consequence because even if nothing is permitted, nothing is reprehensible when it comes to the inhabitants of Gaza. Numerous abuses, beyond the control of the chain of command, are documented. If the army has been given the responsibility not to restrain its troops, it most probably has been ordered not to target the church.
When meetings, at the initiative of a government minister for the reconstruction of Gaza after the "voluntary migration of the inhabitants of Gaza", are held in the Knesset, the fate of some 700 Christians just does not have the slightest weight in the balance.
TERRE SAINTE MAGAZINE Septembre Octobre 2025 # 699
Pages 16-17
