Palestinian Christian activists and church leaders have raised alarm over growing pressure on Christian communities in the occupied West Bank after Israeli soldiers attempted to halt preparations for a Marian festival in the village of Taybeh before church intervention allowed the event to proceed.
According to the US-based NGO Vulnerable People Project (VPP), Israeli military vehicles entered Taybeh on Friday morning and ordered organisers preparing for the annual Catholic celebration honouring the Virgin Mary to stop their activities and leave the area.
The organisation said soldiers returned around 30 minutes later and repeated the order, while witnesses reported a stun grenade being deployed and increased military activity, including drones and a helicopter operating overhead.
The matter was eventually escalated through church channels to Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who contacted Israeli authorities and secured permission for the festival to continue.
"A permitted Catholic festival honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary was nearly shut down by armed military intervention before it even began," Jason Jones, founder and president of the Vulnerable People Project, said in a statement.
The incident has heightened concerns among Palestinian Christians over the future of Taybeh, widely regarded as the last entirely Palestinian Christian town in the occupied West Bank.
"Taybeh: the West Bank's last fully Christian village is on the verge of erasure," Palestinian Christian human rights activist Ihab Hassan wrote on X.
He said church leaders and residents had been forced to escalate the issue until it reached Cardinal Pizzaballa and warned that villagers felt increasingly under pressure from both Israeli forces and settlers.
"Church leaders and residents are calling on the world to intervene before it's too late. They are under attack by the Israeli army and settlers. So far, no one seems to care as the attacks on the village continue," he added.
The incident has renewed fears among Palestinian Christians and church leaders that military restrictions, settler encroachment, land seizures and economic pressures are accelerating the decline of Christian communities in the Holy Land.
Palestinian Christian advocates have increasingly argued that Israeli occupation policies, settlement expansion and insecurity in communities such as Taybeh are driving Christians from their historic homeland.
Lex Pouliot, manager of Middle East projects for VPP, said the organisation had initially feared settlers might attempt to disrupt the celebration.
"Our fear this morning was that radical settlers would disrupt preparations for the Marian Festival. Instead, it was far more disturbing to watch the Israeli military intervene," he said.
"Hearing a stun grenade explode as Christians prepared for a permitted religious celebration brought into sharp focus the countless stories I have heard throughout my time in the West Bank. What I witnessed today should concern Christians around the world."
The latest incident comes amid mounting tensions in Taybeh.
In March, parish priest Fr Bashar Fawadleh warned that Israeli settlers had seized private land belonging to residents, including areas near the village's quarry and cement factory.
The concerns intensified in April when Cardinal Pizzaballa and other senior church leaders submitted a formal complaint to Israeli authorities over reported settler encroachments on church-owned land in the occupied West Bank.
VPP also said the latest incident followed a separate confrontation on Thursday in which Israeli soldiers allegedly entered a brewery in Taybeh and prevented its owner from accessing the premises.
Jones said Friday's events reflected a broader deterioration in conditions facing Palestinian Christians.
"The Christian community of Taybeh has endured escalating pressure for months, and today's events demonstrate how fragile religious freedom has become in the very land where Christianity was born," he said.
Church leaders and local residents have called for guarantees that religious celebrations in Taybeh can take place without disruption or fear in the future.
The Israeli military had not publicly commented on the allegations at the time of publication.