The last remaining Christian town in the West Bank was attacked by Israeli settlers last Wednesday.

Taybeh is a village of about 1,500 people with three churches, located some 30 km north of Jerusalem and east of Ramallah. More than 600 residents are Latin Catholics, while the rest are Greek Orthodox or Greek Melkite Catholics. It is a frequent stop for Irish pilgrims to the Holy Land who visit the local Taybeh Brewing Company.

“Yesterday evening, settlers attacked homes in the Karamelo roundabout, an area at the eastern entrance to the village,” said local parish priest Fr Bashar Fawadleh.

The incident “coincided with an attack by dozens of settlers on the village of Kafr Malik, which is near us, and which led to the death of three martyrs and the burning of many vehicles and homes.”

The deadly clash in Kafr Malik was the latest instance of armed settlers carrying out violent raids against Palestinian villages in the West Bank, often with impunity in the presence of Israeli soldiers or directly with their help.

There has also been an ongoing campaign of harassment with arson attacks on crops, theft of equipment, and deliberately releasing cattle into the fields to destroy harvests.

Taybeh resident Nadim Khoury, owner of the well-known Taybeh Brewery and Winery, told OSV News that earlier in June settlers entered land belonging to his cousin and let the sheep eat all the new crops he had planted and took his water tank so he would not be able to water any new crops.