Amid concern over immigration enforcement raids in the area, the bishop of San Bernardino, California, on July 8 issued a dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass for the faithful if they fear for their well-being.
On July 7, settlers carried out a daytime arson attack on the Church of St. George and a Byzantine Christian cemetery. The fifth-century church is “one of the oldest and most venerated places of worship for Christians in Palestine.”