Nun attacked in Jerusalem: faithful worried but “not surprised”

At mass in Saint Stephen's Basilica in Jerusalem on Sunday, the faithful flock to bear witness to their "thoughts" for the French nun attacked on Tuesday. But they are not surprised, the signs of hostility from extremist Jews having multiplied recently.

The scene, captured by a video surveillance camera in the holy city, is extremely violent: in a cobbled alley, a man rushes running behind the nun in a white habit and black veil, pushing her in the back. She is thrown to the ground, her head hits a block of stone. The man leaves, then returns to point a threatening index finger at the woman on the ground, before kicking her in the stomach. Passersby intervene.

At the end of mass - in French - in the nun's church, the affair is on everyone's lips. We share his distress, we bring a small gift of comfort, we ask for news of the sister, who did not come this morning.

“She still has pain” but she is “surrounded”, testifies brother Olivier Catel, who celebrated the mass.

He arrived in Jerusalem about ten years ago. At the time, he said, incidents were rare. About once a year, "when I went out in religious garb, Jews, generally ultra-Orthodox, spit next to us."

"We didn't pay attention to it because it was so isolated." But for three or four years, according to him, it has become a daily occurrence: "when we go out, people spit next to us."

The Rossing Center, an association for interfaith dialogue based in Jerusalem, documented the "increasing harassment" of Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem in a study published in March. In 2025, it recorded 61 physical attacks (spitting, pepper spray, beatings, etc.), 28 cases of harassment, 52 damage to Church property (graffiti, throwing stones or trash cans) and 14 defaced road signs.

In front of the basilica, a British priest, who never goes out without his black religious habit and prefers to remain anonymous, confirms: the spitting in his direction, insults, "go home!" are his daily life.

- fears the worst -

“Everyone said that it would happen one day,” assures Pierre, a faithful 30-year-old on the square, “not surprised” and who fears the worst.

On the day of the sister's attack, he said, a religious acquaintance of his was in a supermarket when a man stopped in front of him. "He told his child, in Hebrew, 'him, we must kill him'. If nothing is done, one day (...) someone will take the plunge," he worries.

The attack took place on Mount Zion, a stone's throw from the Old City of Jerusalem, the epicenter of tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, below the Dormition Abbey. Opposite the Upper Room, place of Christ's last meal for Christians and tomb of King David for Jews.

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