The attack took place on Tuesday 28 April, around 5.45pm, in front of the Cenacle, on Mount Zion, a sacred area for Christians and also for Jews, who link the tradition of David’s Tomb to it. The religious woman attacked is believed to be a 48-year-old French nun, a researcher at the École Biblique et Archéologique Française in Jerusalem. Israeli police arrested a 36-year-old man. In the video, the man is seen coming up behind the nun, then he throws her to the ground, walks away and hits her again.
The Rossing Center, an Israeli center that monitors Jewish-Christian relations, in its 2025 report talks about 155 documented episodes against Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem. It’s not just physical violence. The report also reports an increase in verbal harassment: from 13 cases recorded in 2024 to 28 in 2025. There is talk of anti-Christian insults, interruptions of religious processions and clashes with tourist guides who explained the Christian history of the holy places. Jewish extremists have in the past defaced church property in the area and some ultra-Orthodox and nationalist activists have opposed Christian prayer rights in the Tomb of David area.
In March, Israeli police prevented the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and other members of the clergy from celebrating Palm Sunday mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Lastly, in Lebanon, Israeli soldiers had hammered a statue of Jesus after entering Debel, a Christian village, in the ongoing offensive against Hezbollah in the south of the country of the Cedars.