Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. (Credit: Debbie Hill/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Israeli police said officers arrested an American man on Thursday over vandalizing a church along a major pilgrimage route in Jerusalem's Old City.
The suspect was detained after a wooden statue of Jesus was pulled down and damaged in the Church of the Condemnation, where Christians believe Jesus was flogged and sentenced to death.
"The suspect arrested is an American tourist in his forties, who vandalized and broke a statue in the church," said a statement from police, adding that the man's mental health was being assessed.
A spokeswoman for the United States Embassy in Jerusalem did not comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.
Majid al-Rishq, the gatekeeper who detained the accused, described him as Jewish man armed with a hammer.
"He started hitting the statue of Christ in the Church of the Condemnation … I was able to grab him and pull him off it, but he knocked the statue off and broke it," Rishq told AFP.
"I grabbed him and then the priests came and called the police," he added.
The wooden statue was brought from Spain to Jerusalem in 1912, said Eugenio Alliata, director of the SBF Archaeological Museum, which collects artefacts from the Holy Land.
The Old City lies in unlawfully Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and is home to sites sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims.
The Church of the Condemnation stands on Via Dolorosa, which Christians believe marks the path taken by Jesus before his crucifixion in the sacred city.
Pilgrims from around the world walk from the Church of the Condemnation, stopping to pray and sing along the cobbled street before reaching Jesus's crucifixion and burial site at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Israel's police force said it takes "damage to religious institutions and sites very seriously," following a series of attacks targeting the Christian community.
Two Jews were arrested over an attack on Saturday against a group of Armenian Christians in the Old City, a police spokeswoman told AFP.
Last month, dozens of Christian graves were desecrated at a Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion, where Christians believe Jesus's Last Supper took place.
The vandalism led to the arrests of two teenagers from central Israel.
The suspect was detained after a wooden statue of Jesus was pulled down and damaged in the Church of the Condemnation, where Christians believe Jesus was flogged and sentenced to death.
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