A thug viciously beat a nun near King David’s Tomb in Jerusalem, shoving the helpless sister to the ground and furiously kicking her, disturbing video shows.
The brutal assault of the French Biblical and Archaeological School member was captured on surveillance camera Tuesday, when the unidentified man ran up behind the nun, while she was calmly walking down a side street near the tomb on Mount Zion, the video shows, according to NBC News.
The attacker shoved her so hard that the woman hit the pavement, smacking her head on an empty concrete tree ring, the outlet reported.
A disturbing video shows a thug beating up a nun near King David’s Tomb in Jerusalem, Israel. IsraelPolice/X He then began pummeling the nun with kicks to the chest — until bystanders intervened.
Israeli police arrested the brute and can be heard on the video telling the suspect in Hebrew, “Put your hand down. Show me your hands.”
“You are under arrest on suspicion of assault causing injury.”
Police have not released the identities of the suspect or the victim, though they did share images showing visible bruising on the nun’s face.
The French school’s director, Father Olivier Poquillon, expressed gratitude toward those who came to the nun’s aid.
“The scourge of hatred is a common challenge,” he wrote on X.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem’s public and governmental affairs adviser, Farid Jubran, called the attack a “repulsive and barbaric hate crime,” according to Catholic outlet Crux.
The assault resulted in the nun suffering bruises on her face after having her head smacked on a tree ring. IsraelPolice/X Israeli police said it “treats any attack on members of the clergy and religious communities with the utmost seriousness and applies a policy of zero tolerance to all acts of violence.”
Despite those assurances, advocates for Christian communities remain concerned.
Wadie Abunassar, coordinator of the Holy Land Christian Forum, told NBC that attacks targeting Christians have become a growing phenomenon — and that the swift response to this particular case was largely due to the existence of video evidence.
In many other cases, suspects are either not arrested, quickly released or face only mild charges if prosecuted at all, he said.
The attack is the latest in a series of troubling incidents involving Christian communities in the region.
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Last month, two Israeli soldiers were removed from combat duty after a photo surfaced online showing one of them appearing to strike a statue of Jesus Christ with an axe or sledgehammer in the Christian village of Debel in southern Lebanon — an act that drew international outrage and was condemned by Israeli military and political leaders.
In March, Israeli police blocked Christian faith leaders from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass, sparking another wave of international criticism.
