(LifeSiteNews) — An auxiliary bishop for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has spoken out against the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise and its intensifying violent aggressions against Palestinians and, more recently, specific Christian towns in the West Bank.
Bishop William Shomali told EWTN last Thursday that since the beginning of this year, “the aggressions against Christians in the West Bank are multiplying.”
While the situation for Palestinian Christians had been generally “calm” in their areas, including Bethlehem, “now there is more expansion of the settlements and more aggressions from the side of the (Israeli) settlers,” the bishop lamented.
“They started by kicking out the farmers from Area C from their properties,” by threats, physical aggressions and vandalism, including the torching of their cars, he said.
Today, masked Israeli settlers armed with clubs attacked Palestinian farmers while they were working their land near the villages of Kafr Qaddum and Beit Lid in the West Bank.
Palestinians urgently need international protection. pic.twitter.com/z0pbyOMyLH
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) January 27, 2026
“This has become a real threat to Christian families, because they lost their livelihood and their source of income,” explained the Palestinian bishop. And thus, the Church endeavors to provide aid to these families to help them survive.
Shomali also explained how there are now in the West Bank more than 200 illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land, and though Palestinians have been settled on these lands of their forefathers for many centuries, the Israeli Zionist settlers “believe that all the land of Palestine should be Jewish,” and thus the Palestinians should be expelled from their lands.
The last fully Christian town in the West Bank, Taybeh, has sustained increased Israeli settler attacks since June of last year with a new escalation initiated last week when these terrorists raided and stole a cement factory and quarry on the far western side of the town.
As reported by Vatican News, since last Thursday morning, these invaders have controlled this property and conducted Talmudic rituals and prayers inside, while raising an Israeli flag on the top of one of the facility’s storage tanks.
READ: Holy Land bishops urge Christians worldwide to help defend faithful from Israeli settler attacks
Israeli terrorists rampage across West Bank torching homes, cars
While the eyes of the world are fixated on the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran, these escalations intensified over the weekend when hundreds of Israeli terrorist settlers stormed several Palestinian towns in the West Bank and burned homes, medical clinics, vehicles, throwing Molotov cocktails, vandalizing property, executing physical assaults, including a gunshot wound and skull fracture, and spray-painting racist graffiti.
Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed the Palestinian village of Jalud during Eid al-Fitr, torching homes and wounding at least one person.
This comes amid a surge in settler violence in the occupied West Bank, where over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. pic.twitter.com/0Ig8w90kPd
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 22, 2026
One victim whose house was torched told Middle East Eye (MEE), “They burned everything, smashed the windows, and the fire consumed all the furniture.”
“They even tore down the roof tiles and threw Molotov cocktails through the roof and windows, and the house immediately burst into flames,” he said.
More than 200 Israeli terrorists participated in an attack on the town of al-Fandaqumiya and according to the way different groups fanned out through the town, one witness said it appeared to be organized.
Israeli settlers set fire to homes and vehicles in al‑Funduqumiya, in the occupied West Bank, as settler violence further increases since the start of the US‑Israeli war on Iran.
Rights groups say roadblocks and restrictions leave Palestinian communities vulnerable. pic.twitter.com/IW6mXj0sXt
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 22, 2026
“They suddenly attacked the houses and burned any vehicles they encountered. They burned a doctor’s car that was visiting the town, and they also burned a neighbour’s bus,” resident Sami Azzam told MEE.
“They threw Molotov cocktails at another neighbour’s house, causing it to catch fire and burn down,” he described.
HORRIFIC night in the West Bank.
Israeli settlers are attacking more than nine Palestinian villages and cities now, including Bethlehem, setting cars and homes on fire and attempting to burn families alive. pic.twitter.com/blZwHOJaB5
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) March 21, 2026
After the settler terrorists withdrew from the town of Silat al-Dhahr, the Israeli army arrived but closed the main entrance to the village preventing the firefighters and ambulances from reaching the burning homes and injured victims.
Israeli officials corroborate, condemn ‘Jewish terror’ in West Bank
Corroborating the gravity of these escalating attacks are some current and former Israeli government officials who have denounced both this ongoing “Jewish terror” being inflicted upon the Palestinian people by Israeli settlers and the Israeli government that looks the other way, or even protects the criminal activities of radical Jewish terrorists.
Last week Israeli MK Meirav Cohen delivered a speech in the Knesset condemning the “Jewish terror” which has been escalating in the West Bank where “villages are being attacked, communities are being driven from their homes with premeditation, sheep are being slaughtered, orchards are being burned, (and) people are attacked for the mere fact of being Arab.”
Israeli MK Meirav Cohen delivered a powerful speech in the Knesset on settler terrorism in the West Bank: “This is terror, and it is Jewish terror….. It’s not ‘just a few bad apples.’… The politicians excusing this violence are complicit.” pic.twitter.com/J9ik7vmf6q
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) March 17, 2026
“It is terror, and it is Jewish terror,” Ms. Cohen said further charging that Israeli government officials help facilitate it through obfuscation, encouragement or ensuring “the terrorists don’t get arrested, all of these people are responsible for this terror no less than those terrorists from the hilltops.”
“Silence is filth. This unacceptable phenomenon must be stopped,” she concluded.
Former Defense Minister: ‘Jewish pogromists’ turning nation into ‘Judeo-Nazis’
Additionally, in late January, Israeli former defense minister Moshe Yaalon condemned “Jewish pogromists attacking Palestinians” in the West Bank and lamenting that “not a single Jewish terrorist has been arrested” for committing these ongoing crimes.
He warned that the “ideology of ‘Jewish supremacy’… has become dominant in the Israeli government, (and) reminds one of Nazi racial theory” which, with the violence exercised against Palestinians, is turning the nation into “Judeo-Nazis.”
And, finally, along with other Israeli officials speaking out against these atrocities, former prime minister Ehud Olmert warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July 2024 that he would eventually be arrested and prosecuted. Olmert accused Netanyahu of allowing these ongoing crimes “by rioters who are Israeli citizens, Arab haters” who commit them against Palestinians “with the clear intention of expelling them from their homes and the villages where they have lived all their lives.”
According to the Palestinian Authority, six Palestinians have been killed by gunfire in settler terrorist attacks in the West Bank since March 1, 2026.
Additionally, since the beginning of the war on Gaza n October 2023, these Israeli terrorist attacks have dramatically risen with Palestinian health ministry figures reporting that 1,050 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli troops or settler violence.
Following these horrific attacks against indigenous Palestinians over the weekend, Middle East Eye reports “no arrests have been made.”
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