(LifeSiteNews) — Israeli military forces assaulted Palestinian Christians celebrating the Feast of St. George on Tuesday evening in the town that bears the saint’s name in Arabic — al-Khader — just south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Hundreds of Christians — and Muslims who also venerate the saint — had gathered around the historic 16th-century Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. George for prayers, religious services and traditional rituals, which include barefoot processions from Bethlehem.

According to multiple local sources, a convoy of Israeli army vehicles suddenly stormed the old quarter of al-Khader, where the monastery stands. Heavily armed soldiers fired barrages of tear gas canisters and stun (concussion/sound) grenades in the vicinity of the pilgrims. The sudden barrage triggered panic and a stampede as people rushed for shelter inside the monastery and nearby buildings.

Describing the scene, Bethlehem Governor Mohammad Taha Abu Alia said the chaos “resulted in several cases of suffocation, as well as one injury caused by the crowd crush.”

Palestinian Red Crescent teams said their crews transported one man who was reportedly beaten inside the monastery itself and hospitalized, according to Anadolu Agency (AA) news.

Abu Alia went on to condemn the assault, stating that Israeli troops raided the area surrounding the monastery and overran Palestinian police checkpoints that had been set up for the event.

He noted that what began as a minor, contained altercation between some clergy and a local resident from Beit Jala was deliberately escalated by the army’s intervention. “The occupation authorities are responsible,” Abu Alia said, describing the army’s actions as “unjustified practices.”

Local activist Ahmad Salah told AA that “hundreds of people had gathered for the celebration” when the forces attacked.

Before the feast day celebration, the Israeli occupation army had closed the main road into the town in an effort to restrict movement in and out of the area.

The Israeli army has sealed off all entrances and exits to the village of Al-Khader near Bethlehem in the West Bank, at a time when Christians traditionally gather there to celebrate the Feast of St. George at the village monastery. pic.twitter.com/czGSiCtpM2

— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 6, 2026

The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine reported the “Israeli-imposed measures in the vicinity of the monastery, most notably the closure of the main road with earth mounds and several secondary access routes, as well, had a tangible impact on participation. Attendance was noticeably reduced.”

On Wednesday, a delegation from the Committee provided a presentation in the European Parliament addressing the “escalating and systematic targeting of the Christian presence in the (Israeli) occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in Jerusalem.”

This included the current “unprecedented escalation of violations targeting Palestinian Christians, churches, clergy, and holy sites,” the organization said in a statement. “The delegation stressed that these practices constitute direct violations of international humanitarian law and fundamental principles guaranteeing freedom of religion and worship.”

More broadly, the Committee delegation “highlighted the alarming rise in settler attacks against Christian communities and religious institutions, including assaults on clergy, desecration of religious symbols and sacred spaces, and the growing spread of incitement and hate speech against Christians in the Holy Land, all taking place within a climate of near-total impunity.”

READ: Palestinian leaders: Christian communities risk being wiped out if US churches don’t intervene

Israeli anti-Christian attacks escalating

LifeSiteNews has documented what appears to be a disturbing escalation in attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers against Christians, their clergy, and religious property across the Holy Land and Lebanon.

On April 19, a photograph surfaced on X and other social media outlets showing an Israeli soldier smashing the head of the statue of Jesus Christ with a sledgehammer. The image quickly went viral and sparked global outrage among Christians including the Catholic bishops of the Holy Land who issued an “unreserved condemnation” of the desecration. Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa stated that the act “constitutes a grave affront to the Christian faith and adds to other reported incidents of desecration of Christian symbols by IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon.”

READ: Israeli soldier desecrates statue of Blessed Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jewish terrorists from illegal Israeli settlements have repeatedly terrorized the predominantly Christian town of Taybeh as well as other Palestinian communities.

As has become a regular occurrence, masked settlers “stormed this Christian village … ” last July, “setting vehicles on fire, hurling rocks at homes, and spraying hateful graffiti on the walls.”

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem described the armed intruders as being on horseback, spreading terror and torching holy sites while also destroying farmland.

Last month, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem also called Jewish settler destruction of their Church-owned lands and trees, using an excavator, “a ‘red line.’”

In Jerusalem, physical assaults and harassment have surged. Last week, video captured a “brutal assault on (a) Catholic nun” who was slammed to the ground and kicked by a Jewish settler terrorist named Yonah Schreiber near King David’s tomb.

Israeli settler terrorist Yona Schreiber, who violently shoved a nun to the ground in Jerusalem last month, is indicted on charges of assault causing actual bodily harm, motivated by hatred toward a religious group.

He is a settler from the illegal settlement of Peduel. pic.twitter.com/LgysuUEqEr

— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 7, 2026

Other reports document the common occurrence of Christian clergy and religious being spat on and harassed by Jewish terrorists in Jerusalem.

Such incidents have highlighted the persistent and even deadly aggressions from radical Jewish sects over land and security in the West Bank and Jerusalem, where Church properties have faced repeated pressures with Christians consistently warning their western co-religionists that radical Zionist movements, most often with government sanction, are seeking to drive them out of the Holy Land.