Arson Guts Israeli Church Where ‘Jesus Fed 5,000’

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An arson attack has gutted part of the church at the site where Christians believe Jesus performed a miracle by feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the Israeli fire brigade said. Aljazeera reports:

A verse from a Hebrew prayer denouncing the worship of “false gods” was spray-painted in red on a church wall, suggesting Jewish activists were responsible. Sixteen Jewish minors from settlements in the West Bank were arrested in relation to Thursday morning’s arson attack, but were later released without charge, Israeli police told Al Jazeera.

A spokesman for the fire brigade said a preliminary investigation showed the blaze broke out in several places inside the church, evidence that it was started deliberately. The limestone Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, was constructed in the 1980s and is overseen by the Benedictine Order.

It was built on the site of 4th and 5th century churches that commemorated what Christian faithful revere as Jesus’ miraculous feeding of 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish.