The Israeli police have said that they arrested a man suspected of assaulting a French nun in Jerusalem the previous day, declining to confirm reports that the attacker was an Israeli settler.
The incident has renewed concern over a pattern of attacks, perpetrated by Israeli settlers and soldiers, targeting Christian clergy and institutions.
"The suspect, a 36-year-old male, was identified and subsequently arrested by police," the force said in a statement on Wednesday, adding it viewed with "utmost severity" any violent act "driven by potentially racist motives and directed toward members of the clergy".
Police declined to disclose the suspect's nationality, but said he was arrested "on suspicion of assault, with all potential motives under examination".
Footage shared by police showed bruises on the right side of the nun's face.
‘Gratuitous assault’
Father Olivier Poquillon, director of Jerusalem's French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, said the 48-year-old nun was a researcher at the institution and does not wish to speak publicly.
"Yesterday, around 1745 (1445 GMT)... she felt someone come up behind her and throw her with full force onto a rock," Poquillon said, describing Tuesday's attack.
"While the sister was on the ground, the man began to kick her repeatedly," he said.
The assault occurred in front of the Cenacle, a building on Jerusalem's Mount Zion considered holy to both Christians and Jews, the latter of whom regard it as the burial place of the biblical figure King David.
On Tuesday, Poquillon had denounced a "gratuitous assault" in a statement on X, which was reposted by the French Consulate in Jerusalem with a statement "strongly condemning" the incident.
‘Rising hostility toward Christian community’
The Faculty of Humanities at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, in a statement, expressed "profound shock and condemnation" for the attack, and deplored its increasingly common nature.
"This is not an isolated incident, but part of a troubling pattern of rising hostility toward the Christian community and its symbols," the faculty said.
A European diplomatic source in Jerusalem also noted the assault "occurred in a context where anti-Christian acts have become commonplace, with insults and spitting by (Jewish) extremists targeting clergy in religious dress on a daily basis."
Earlier this month, the military removed two soldiers from combat duty after they destroyed a statue of Jesus in a southern Lebanon village, an act that drew widespread condemnation.
