The US ambassador to Israel on Saturday visited a Christian village in the occupied West Bank and urged accountability for an attack on an ancient church by Israeli settlers.

In early July, Israeli settlers carried out an arson attack on the village of Taybeh in the area of the ruins of the Byzantine-era Church of Saint George, which dates back to the fifth century.

Ambassador Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian and staunch advocate for Israel, said his trip to Taybeh aimed to “express solidarity with the people who just want to live their lives in peace, to be able to go to their own land, to be able to go to their place of worship”.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a mosque, a church, a synagogue,” he told journalists.

“It’s unacceptable to commit an act of sacrilege by desecrating a place that is supposed to be a place of worship.”

“We will certainly insist that those who carry out acts of terror and violence in Taybeh or anywhere be found, be prosecuted, not just reprimanded. That’s not enough,” he said.

“People need to pay a price for doing something that destroys that which belongs not just to other people, but that which belongs to God.”

In the villages and communities around Taybeh, Palestinian authorities have reported that Israeli settlers killed three people and damaged or destroyed multiple water sources in the past two weeks alone.

Since October 2023, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 957 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Over the same period, at least 36 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations.

Huckabee, who has for years been an outspoken supporter of illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, on Tuesday demanded an investigation and consequences after Israeli settlers beat to death a Palestinian-American in the West Bank.

It was a sign of rare public pressure against Israel by President Donald Trump’s administration.