Published On 11/6/2026
In the Christian-majority town of Taybeh, east of the city of Ramallah in the central West Bank, an attack carried out by Israeli settlers on Tuesday evening topped the conversations of Palestinians and audiences on Arab and Western social media platforms, after video clips spread showing crops and agricultural land catching fire in the town.
Organized assault and local testimonies
The “Jerusalem Voice for Justice” group issued a statement in which it said that it “condemns in the strongest and strongest terms the violent attack launched on the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh last Tuesday evening,” considering that what happened “is part of an escalating pattern of settler violence against Palestinian villages.”
For its part, the official page of Bishop Atallah Hanna quoted Father Bashar Fawadila, the Latin parish priest in Taibe, that “settlers deliberately set fire to a large area of the Jabal al-Masis area opposite the gas station,” and that Palestinian civil defense crews were “initially prevented from reaching the site under the pretext of not completing security coordination procedures,” which allowed the fire to spread and threaten neighboring lands and property.
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According to the same testimony, young men from the town took the initiative to bring a water tanker in an attempt to protect their village, but the settlers “surrounded them and prevented them,” and others were subjected to “physical attacks,” and “two vehicles were damaged, and a mobile phone was stolen.”
He added that the most dangerous thing was “live gunfire towards members of the community on three separate occasions during these events.”
The page stressed that what happened “is not an isolated incident, but rather an episode in a continuous and escalating chain of settler violence, violence that threatens lives, destroys property, and seeks to terrorize an entire community that has no fault other than its presence on the land of its ancestors,” noting that Taybeh’s suffering “reflects a painful reality witnessed in many other areas of the West Bank, where attacks continue and increase without deterrence.”
The last complete Christian village in the West Bank
On social media platforms, many commentators focused on the symbolic status of the town of Taybeh, as tweeters asked: “Did they know that Taybeh is the last complete Christian village in the West Bank?”
They recalled that the town’s residents, most of whom are Latin Catholics, Greek Orthodox, and Melkites, “maintain a continuous Christian presence since the first centuries, and consider themselves an extension of the ancient Christian communities in the Holy Land.”
Some tweeters recalled the Biblical narrative, saying that Taibah is traditionally defined as the town of “Ephraim” mentioned in the Gospel of John (11:54), where “Jesus withdrew with his disciples after the resurrection of Lazarus, shortly before his passion,” adding: “Here Jesus walked. And Israel is now destroying this holy place.”
Western Christian criticism
The event also received attention from Christian voices in the West. Former US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote, “Most American Christians have no idea what is happening around the world, especially these atrocities,” adding, “Many believe this news is a lie. Unfortunately, it is not. Rather, it is a painful truth, and others remain silent.”
Activists also circulated a statement describing what happened in Taybeh as “Israel’s barbarism against the Christians of the last integrated Christian community in Palestine,” considering that this “clearly reveals Zionism’s hostility to Christianity, according to what they say, and this refutes every claim of a “Zionist” alliance or sympathy with Christians.”
At the international level, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres spoke about settler violence in the occupied West Bank, noting “worrying reports of settler violence: home demolitions, the careless expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, the ongoing displacement of Palestinians, and the threat of an annexation attempt that would be like a decades-long occupation with no legal validity.”
