“Israel is seeking to exploit the war … to impose new realities and facts on Jerusalem,” says Greek Orthodox Archbishop Attalah Hanna. “[This] is an attack on Jerusalem, its identity, its history, its heritage as Christian and Islamic holy sites.”

Recent attacks on Christian and Muslim worshipers in Jerusalem reflect Israeli efforts to consolidate control over the holy city. “The occupation, through such policies, claims that Jerusalem is theirs,” Archbishop Atallah Hanna tells Mondoweiss.