A church at the site in Israel where Christians believe Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish has been badly damaged by a fire that police suspect may have been started intentionally.
There is “a strong possibility of arson” being the cause of the overnight blaze at the Church of the Multiplication, in Tabgha on the Sea of Galilee, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told CNN on Thursday.
Graffiti scrawled in Hebrew on a wall outside the church read, “Idols will have their heads cut off.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said she condemned “this act in the strongest terms.”
“The State of Israel safeguards the freedom of worship of all faiths and completely rejects any and all attempts to harm it,” Hotovely said in a statement, expressing confidence that the perpetrators would be caught.
Police are investigating the fire, which did serious damage to the church, one of the most significant in biblical history.
Search for suspects
“The investigation is being carried out in a number of directions, including the possibility that it was deliberate,” Rosenfeld said.
Officers are searching for suspects, while investigators are on the scene at the church.
The Church of Multiplication is run by Benedictine monks.
It wouldn’t be the first time a place of worship has been attacked in the region in recent years. Police have said they suspect right-wing Jewish extremists of torching and defacing mosques and churches in the past.