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Church Leaders Condemn Attacks on Christian Villages in Syria, Jordan, and Ethiopia
· Confirmed
In Short: Church leaders have condemned attacks on Christian villages in Syria, Jordan, and Ethiopia, calling for justice and security.
Syrian health officials reported that five people, including women, children, and an elderly man, were killed in a strike on a village in southern Daraa province, according to the BBC.
Jordan’s military claimed to have struck “terrorist organizations” in Syria in retaliation for an attack on a Christian funeral last week that killed nine people, as reported by the BBC.
In a separate incident, an armed group killed at least 60 Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, targeting villages during a series of brutal attacks, according to Hungarianconservative.
Father Sankari, a priest from a predominantly Christian village in Syria, called for security, justice, and accountability, urging Christians to stay strong after a traumatic experience, as quoted by Persecution.
The Church leaders in Jerusalem condemned an attack on the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh in the West Bank, where masked settlers threw stones at harvesters during the olive harvest, as reported by Aleteia and Orthodoxtimes.
In Jordan, gunmen killed at least seven people and wounded 34 at a church in the Karak region, according to the Daily Mail. Footage from inside the church showed several people lying injured on the floor.
The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem issued a joint statement condemning the “heinous attack” on Taybeh, describing it as part of a wider pattern of settler violence against Palestinian villages during the olive harvest, as quoted by The Catholic Herald.
The Church leaders also called for those responsible to be brought to justice and urged the international community to protect the Christians of the West Bank and those who visit them.
The daughter of a Christian detained in Syria without charges since February 2025 called on the U.S. Administration to secure his release, as reported by Christiandaily.
The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem issued a statement following attacks in and around Taybeh on October 16 and 17, when local residents were gathering olives during the annual harvest, as reported by Church in Need.
The Church leaders also expressed appreciation for several rabbis and Jewish voices who publicly rejected the attacks and called for justice, as quoted by Church in Need.
Bernard Baudoux, the mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries in France, was harvesting olives near Taybeh in solidarity with the local community when he was violently attacked, as reported by Church in Need.
What this adds
The attacks on Christian villages in Syria, Jordan, and Ethiopia highlight the ongoing security concerns faced by Christian communities in these regions. The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem have consistently condemned such attacks and called for justice and protection for these communities.
Background
The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem condemned the attack on Taybeh, calling it a 'heinous attack' and warning that it forms part of a wider pattern of settler violence against Palestinian villages during the olive harvest.
What's confirmed
- On Saturday, October 17, harvesters in the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh came under attack by masked Israeli settlers throwing stones.
- “We renew our full support to the community of Taybeh and its churches, and we will continue, as in the past, to do everything possible to preserve the Christian presence there,” the statement said.
- “This wild attack on the Christian village of Taybeh and against its peaceful population is not an isolated incident,” the Church leaders stress in the statement published on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
- CHURCH leaders in Jerusalem have condemned “heinous” attacks by masked Israeli settlers against residents of the West Bank’s last entirely Christian village, as well as foreign diplomats visiting the area.
What's still developing
- Jordan's Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya told state-affiliated TV the attackers were all Jordanians and "had been holed up in a building in one of the villages near the site of the attack".
- Archons Condemn Israeli Settler Attack on Palestinian Christian Village - Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Skip to content About Protecting the Future of Faith What is an Archon?
- The priests point out that Taybeh is “the place to which Jesus withdrew before His Passion (John 11:54).” It is the last town in the West Bank that is populated entirely by Christians.
- The previous day, October 16, Washington Post journalist Heidi Levine was severely beaten by masked Israeli settlers as she was covering the olive harvest in the West Bank village of Abu Falah.
- The Christian presence in Karak dates back more than 1,500 years, to a time when the Eastern Roman Empire ruled this part of the Middle East.
- As representatives of Christian advocacy groups prepared to meet with administration officials and congress members to urge action on behalf of Suleiman Khalil, a Syriac Orthodox Christian who as mayor of Sadad led the defense of the town against the Islamic State in 2015, his daughter, Natalie Khalil, called on President Donald Trump to help.
- The recent wave of Israeli settler attacks — burning fields, threatening holy sites, and attacking private property against the Palestinian Christian village of Al-Taybeh — should come as no surprise.
- Unless the international community acts decisively and swiftly, Al-Taybeh — one of the last remaining entirely Christian villages in Palestine — risks being overrun by settlers, its lands confiscated, and its people forcibly displaced.
- “We have never experienced anything like this... It was a shock for us. Mixed feelings of sadness and fury,” Rami Kawar, a 47-year-old Christian Jordanian from Madaba, told Middle East Eye.