Attacks against Christians in Israel have almost doubled this year, according to a new report from an Israeli rights monitor looking at data from the first half of 2026.

The Israeli Religious Freedom Data Centre (RFDC) and its Hotline for Documenting Harassment against Christians said that between April and June this year, there were 83 attacks against Christians in Israel or Israeli-occupied territories, compared with 44 in the first quarter. 

The majority of the attacks took place in Jerusalem and included 46 instances of spitting, four physical assaults, and eight verbal attacks.

“As in previous reports, the high number of spitting incidents remains particularly striking. During this quarter, 47 incidents involved spitting, accounting for 56% of all recorded forms of harassment,” the RFDC said.

“In recent years, these acts have increasingly taken place openly, in broad daylight, and at times in a deliberately demonstrative manner. In several cases, perpetrators even explained to Hotline volunteers – and on camera – why they believed such behavior was justified,” it added.

Dr John Newton, the Communications and Research Manager for the UK office of Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which supports persecuted Christians, told Crux Now that these findings were “disheartening.”

“The report that attacks on Christians in Israel doubled in the second quarter of this year makes for disheartening reading,” Newton said, adding that it “echoes findings by the Jerusalem-based Rossing Center – one of ACN’s project partners in the region – which found hostilities towards Churches and Christians had been growing since 2023.” 

“Their research found these attacks are largely carried out by young, marginalised ultra-Orthodox Jewish men with hardline nationalist views. But even though attacks – most of which involve vandalism or spitting at priests or nuns – are growing we must remember that this is the behaviour of a very small minority,” Newton also said.

Newton went on to emphasise that “even among the ultra-Orthodox such behaviour is very unusual: most members of the community would never consider vandalizing a church in their wildest dreams.”

A rise in anti-Christian sentiment

The RFDC report found that there was an increase in attacks during Jerusalem Day and the Flag March, an event that commemorates the capture of East Jerusalem and the Old City during the 1967 Six-Day War.

The report also said that attacks are frequently taking place in public spaces, such as the widely reported attack on a French nun last April. 

“While some incidents involved individuals acting alone, moving in groups appeared to encourage spitting and similar acts,” the report said.

In light of this, Newton said it was vital that Israeli authorities work with Israel’s Christian communities to come up with a solution.

“We would urge authorities to work closely with Israel’s Christian Churches to find a solution to these rising attacks, and encourage people around the globe to pray for all our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land,” Newton said.

Separately, last April there was also an outcry when an image was circulated online of an Israeli soldier smashing the head of a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer in Debel, southern Lebanon.

Two Israeli soldiers subsequently received 30-day military prison sentences after the Israel Defense Forces launched an investigation, concluding that “the soldiers’ conduct completely deviated from IDF orders and values.”

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, expressed both “deep indignation” and “unreserved condemnation” in a statement signed by him and the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land.

In another report, the RFDC also found that an estimated 181 incidents of “harassment targeting Christians, Christian symbols, and Christian institutions” were committed in Israel in 2025.