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TAYBEH, Palestinian Territories: The US ambassador to Israel on Saturday visited a Christian village in the occupied West Bank and urged accountability for an attack on an ancient church, which residents have blamed on Israeli settlers.

In early July, the village of Taybeh was hit by an arson attack in the area of the ruins of the Byzantine-era Church of Saint George, which dates back to the fifth century.

Residents blamed settlers for the assault, which comes as violence soars in the West Bank and last week saw an American-Palestinian man killed near Ramallah.

Ambassador Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian and staunch advocate for Israel, said his trip to Taybeh aimed to “express solidarity with the people who just want to live their lives in peace, to be able to go to their own land, to be able to go to their place of worship.”

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a mosque, a church, a synagogue,” he told journalists.

“It’s unacceptable to commit an act of sacrilege by desecrating a place that is supposed to be a place of worship.”

“We will certainly insist that those who carry out acts of terror and violence in Taybeh or anywhere be found, be prosecuted, not just reprimanded. That’s not enough,” he said.

“People need to pay a price for doing something that destroys that which belongs not just to other people, but that which belongs to God.”

In the villages and communities around Taybeh, Palestinian authorities reported that settlers had killed three people and damaged or destroyed multiple water sources in the past two weeks alone.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence has surged in the territory since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 triggered the Gaza war.

Since then, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 957 Palestinians, including many militants, in the West Bank, according to health ministry figures.

Over the same period, at least 36 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official figures.

Huckabee, who has for years been an outspoken supporter of Jewish settlement in the Palestinian territories, on Tuesday demanded an aggressive investigation and consequences after settlers beat to death a Palestinian-American in the West Bank.

It was a sign of rare public pressure against US ally Israel by President Donald Trump’s administration.