Israeli settlers armed with leaf blowers have set fire to a fifth-century Greek Orthodox Church in the West Bank's last Christian-majority town.
Residents watched on as the blaze spread from the outer walls towards the ancient Church of St George.
Despite the flames being extinguished, settlers returned to the town of Taybeh with assault rifles.
The group of settlers returned the following day and three days after that.
Parish priest Bashar Fawadleh told The Telegraph the police did not come after calling them each instance.
“If they attack our sacred site, they can attack anything of ours," Fawadleh said.
It comes as settler attacks on Palestinians across the occupied West Bank are on the rise.
About half a million Israelis live in Jewish settlements, with three million Palestinians also residing in the area.
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|US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee (second left) and the Palestinian mayor of the village of Taybeh, Suleiman Khourieh (left), tour the fifth-century Church of St George in the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh
In the last two weeks, five Palestinian have been killed in villages and towns close to Taybeh, including in Sinjil where two men, one being a dual US citizen, was beaten to death by settlers on July 12.
Donald Trump's administration reacted furiously to the news, prompting a diplomatic fall-out with Israel over the now-disputed origins of the blaze.
Despite most violence in the West Bank primarily occurring between Jews and Muslims, settlers have turned their attention to Palestinian Christian villages.
Christians were once a prominent community in the West Bank, however, they have since shrunk to less than two per cent of the population with many leaving to escape violence and religious discrimination.
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|Catholic nuns and clergymen stand at the fifth-century Church of St George which was reportedly set on fire by Israeli settlers
The situation is similar in Gaza, where 1,000 Christians have been forced to shelter in the Strip's three remaining churches.
Three people died last week after one of those churches was attacked by Israeli forces.
Fawadleh said it was "just the beginning" of settler attacks, adding: "They want to put fear in our hearts to live here."
He added that the attacks "will bleed the town of people as they leave scared" after 10 families had already been lost in the past two years.
Settlers have also been accused of setting up illegal outposts closer to the town, including Hebrew signs reading: "There is no future for you here."
Following a spike in incidents, Taybeh's Greek Orthodox Church leader David Khoury also voiced his fears about future "problems".
"The settlers are making problems for us every day," he said.
"Assaulting, vandalising, terrorising, terrifying our families, destroying our fields of olive trees, damaging our properties."
The United Nations has reported roughly 750 incidents of settler violence have already taken place this year.
Settlers have been accused of looking to seize land annexed by Israel since the 1967 Six Day War in a move backed by Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Taybeh was first attacked by settlers just before the October 7 massacre in southern Israel and it has since worsened.
However, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian and staunch settlement advocate, condemned the attacks as an "act of terror".
He demanded "harsh consequences" for those who carried out the attacks.