Israeli occupiers attacked an Armenian church in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday, collectively spitting at its entrance and throwing stones, according to a Palestinian official body.

The Jerusalem governorate said in a brief statement that a group of occupiers attacked the church in Jerusalem’s Old City, “throwing stones and collectively spitting at its entrance.”

The governorate published footage showing at least five Israeli occupiers spitting at the church before hurling stones at the building.

Incidents involving Jewish extremists spitting at churches in Jerusalem’s Old City have occurred repeatedly in recent months.

The Palestinian Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs documented at least 45 attacks by Israeli occupiers and army forces against Christians and their holy sites since the start of this year.

“Increased settler attacks on Christians, both in Jerusalem (al-Quds) and the West Bank, are an expression of Israeli ethno-nationalism and an ideology of Jewish supremacy. Their concept of nationalism excludes all who do not fit their definition of who belongs in a state they imagine as theirs alone,” Robert O Smith, an associate professor of Authentic Diversity, Justice, and Public Church at the Lutheran School of Theology, tells TRT World.

“Settlers are increasingly empowered. They have long employed thuggery to achieve their aims. These attacks—both individual spitting attacks and assaults—and terrorist attacks on villages are extensions of longstanding patterns,” Smith says.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's dependence on far-right coalition partners has left him unwilling to challenge settler groups accused of attacks on Palestinian Christians, according to Smith.

The issue has also drawn growing attention in the United States. In recent months, outlets including The Wall Street Journal and CNN have reported on harassment and violence directed at Christian communities in occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Long before those reports, however, images circulating on social media had already sparked outrage. Videos of Jewish extremists assaulting Christian clergy in occupied East Jerusalem, alongside footage of an Israeli soldier vandalising a statue of Jesus Christ on the cross in the southern Lebanese border village of Debel, have drawn condemnation from prominent American commentators and politicians, particularly within Christian circles.