Israel Police finds no damage to Christian church after false claims of arson by Jewish settlers draw broad condemnation

The Israel Police announced on Monday that, contrary to previous reports, the Church of Saint George in the Christian village of Tabyeh was not damaged by a nearby fire.

"Contrary to misleading reports, no damage was caused to the Church of Saint George in Taybeh. The fire was limited to an adjacent open area, not the holy site. Emergency services received reports from local residents, including both Israelis and one Palestinian caller," the police stated.

Noting that they have started a "thorough investigation", the Police statement added, "If arson is confirmed, justice will be pursued regardless of race or background. Due process is based on facts, not headlines."

The incident had caused widespread outrage, drawing condemnations from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who called it "an act of sacrilege" during a visit on Saturday.

Contrary to misleading reports, no damage was caused to the Church of Saint George in Taybeh. The fire was limited to an adjacent open area, not the holy site. Emergency services received reports from local residents, including both Israelis and one Palestinian caller. The… pic.twitter.com/eFicgMPLQJ

— Israel Police (@israelpolice) July 21, 2025

Following the release of the police statement, Ambassador Huckabee released an updated statement on the event, noting that he had not attributed blame to any group.

"Investigation reveals no damage to ancient church in Taybeh & investigation of origin of fire continues. I have NOT attributed the cause of fire to any person or group as we don't know for sure," Huckabee posted to his personal X account.

"The press has. I have said that regardless, it was crime & deserves consequences."

Also on Monday, an investigative report by The Press Service of Israel (TPS-IL) challenged the claims that Israeli settlers started a fire in an attempt to damage the 5th Century Church of St. George and the nearby cemetery in the Palestinian village of Taybeh, which lies several kilometers northeast of the Palestinian Authority’s capital, Ramallah.

Huckabee, a long-time supporter of Israel's right to the biblical land of Judea and Samaria (West Bank), visited Taybeh on Saturday, inspecting evidence of the fires, and releasing an unusually sharp statement in which he said he would “demand those responsible be held accountable w/real consequences.” 

Huckabee also referred to the incident as an “act of terror,” without explicitly naming Jewish settlers as the culprits.

The greater area of Taybeh has been the scene of escalating violence between radical settler groups and local residents in recent weeks. 

However, a recent report by TPS-IL, an independent news service created to counter biased reporting about Israel, found several inconsistencies in the reports about the Taybeh fire and the alleged role of settlers in the lighting of those fires by mainstream news agencies. 

Eliana Fenistin, head of the Binyamin Council’s Foreign Desk, visited the church in Taybeh after the alleged attack.

Here's what she saw:pic.twitter.com/Fg9zi0yOW6 https://t.co/yRuzr7q02g

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) July 21, 2025

The Press Service of Israel said it "found evidence of firefighting efforts by local Jewish residents and raised serious doubts about the fire’s origin.” 

Among other initial reports, Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, had directly blamed “radical Israelis” for the fire. 

“Radical Israelis from nearby settlements intentionally set fire near the town cemetery and the church of St. George,” Theophilos III declared in a statement at the time. 

TPS-IL reviewed videos of the incident shared online and found that several young Jewish men from the nearby Jewish settlement could be seen working in the fire with fire-extinguishing equipment, including leaf blowers, which are able to overwhelm small blazes, putting the fires out. 

Some Palestinian accounts on social media accused the settlers of using the leafblowers to spread the fire.

From the videos, it is not clear who started the fires.

The agency also spoke to a Jewish farmer from the settlement who had filed several complaints with the police about someone setting fire to the fields where his sheep graze over the previous days. TPS-IL said it confirmed the filing of the complaints with the Israel Border Police.

Fires in the same general area were documented on July 7, 8, and 11. TPS-IL found that both the Jewish settlers and the church authorities agree on the dates of the fires, but disagreed on their causes. 

While acknowledging that “no one filmed the arson itself,” a spokesman for the Latin Patriarchate said the event "happened as part of a sequence of troubling incidents.” 

Channel 7 News also spoke to settler activist Elisha Yered who lives in the area, and who in the past has been involved in incidents of violence and has defended spitting attacks on Christians.

He claimed that the settlers of Havat Rimonim (Pomegranate Farm) worked to put out the fire as it approached the church and cemetery, and said that photos of the youths were misleadingly shared on social media as if they had started a fire. 

Yered alleged that Arabs from the village set fire to the open areas on four separate occasions in a week to prevent Jewish grazing on the land. 

“At the farm, they insisted on fighting to put out the fire, even though they could have easily said, 'Let them eat the porridge they cooked,' and they stopped the fire just before it reached the line of houses where, among other things, an ancient church and cemetery are located,” Yered stated.

Yered also challenged statements, such as the recent statement by Lindsey Graham, who mistakenly said in an interview with Fox News that there was "a Palestinian Catholic church burned to the ground." As photos and videos of the site after the fire show, the ruins of the 1,500-year-old church were not touched by the fires.

"In the entire incident, no damage was done to either the church or the cemetery, and they certainly were not 'completely burned down' or 'severely damaged,' thanks in part to the residents who fought the fire with their bare hands," Yered stated. "This is a fact, not an interpretation.” 

He also stated that not a single official complaint had been filed with the police by the village of Taybeh, despite the fierce international campaign being waged against the settlers online and in the media. 

As with many reports of settler violence, little photo or video evidence of the event itself has been distributed. Many of the social media accounts sharing media or information about the incident often engage in polemical attacks for or against the Israeli settlers and the Palestinians.

Is All Israel News’ faithful reporting important to you? Be part of it—help us continue by becoming a $5/month supporting partner.