Israeli authorities have reportedly denied Christians access to the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Holy Saturday.
Police set up checkpoints throughout Jerusalem's Old City, restricting access for thousands of Christian worshippers.
Videos
circulating on social media show Israeli forces confronting
worshippers, including scenes of physical confrontation and the use of
firearms to disperse crowds. The images suggest that some pilgrims were
beaten and verbally and physically abused as they tried to reach the
church. Christians were pushed back or held for hours. Some were
arrested.
Police even restricted access to the church for the Vatican's Apostolic Nuncio to Palestine, Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana.
The
Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine condemned
the "violation of diplomatic norms and religious freedom".
The
committee added that Israel had turned a sacred occasion into a
militarised ordeal and called for international intervention to uphold
freedom of worship: "This is not about security. It is a policy designed
to erase Jerusalem's religious and cultural diversity".
For Christians in the West Bank, only 6,000 permits have been issued this year, despite a community of some 50,000.
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