An anti-tank missile fired by the Iranian-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah from Lebanon hit a church in a Palestinian Christian town and wounded a guard on Tuesday, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and news reports.
The church is located in the small village of Iqrit, which is near the Lebanon border.
Hezbollah attacked the St. Mary’s Greek-Orthodox Church of Iqrit in northern Israel.
An anti-tank missile from Lebanon directly hit the church, injuring a civilian.
This attack is not only a clear violation of @UN Security Council Resolution 1701, but also a violation of the…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 26, 2023
The Times of Israel reported:
In a statement, Hezbollah claims to have targeted an IDF position near the northern community of Shomera.
But Hebrew-language media reports say the target is actually a church in the nearby depopulated Palestinian Christian village of Iqrit.
A civilian man in his 80s guarding the church was moderately wounded in the attack, reports say.
Another projectile was reportedly fired at the village as the IDF and first responders helped the wounded guard.
There have been four civilians and eight IDF soldiers killed by unprovoked Hezbollah fire since the war began.
Hezbollah is a Shia Muslim terror group, backed by the theocratic Iranian regime.
The village’s residents were ordered to leave by the Israeli military in 1948, after Arab states joined in an effort to destroy the Jewish state. Israeli courts have barred the residents and their descendants, many of whom are Arab citizens of Israel, from returning, but they maintained the church in the hope of coming back permanently one day.
Parish priest, Father Suheil Khoury leads an Easter mass on April 21, 2014 in the church of the Palestinian village of Iqrit, sprawled on a hilltop in the Upper Galilee. The church is the only remaining structure following the evacuation of the residents in 1948. Sixty-six years after their ancestors were driven out during the Nakba, the “catastrophe” that befell Palestinians, Arab Israeli youths are returning to the village of Iqrit in the Upper Galilee. AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Last year, the New York Times described the church of Iqrit as an enduring example of Palestinian resilience:
On Dec. 26 [2002], the church will hold a Christmas Mass — an observance mixed with joy and bitterness given Iqrit’s history.
The church, at the top of a hill overlooking agricultural lands and the village cemetery, was founded in the early 1800s by a priest from Syria, who is buried inside. Small imprints of crosses and crescents line the top of its bricks, a nod by its Muslim architect to the closeness of Islam and Christianity.
Pro-Palestinian activists in the West have spent several weeks attacking Christmas and symbols of Christianity, despite the fact that there is a Christian minority in the Palestinian community. In New York on Monday, pro-Palestinian activists — some carrying Islamic religious symbols — attempted to disrupt Christmas celebrations.
Update: The second Hezbollah rocket wounded nine IDF soldiers, including one who was wounded seriously, while evacuating the wounded Palestinian guard at the church, according to the Times of Israel.
Separately, a Hamas rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a synagogue in southern Israel, but caused no injuries, the Times of Israel reports.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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