Thieves have stolen an iron cross outside a church in the northern Galilee where Christians believe that Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, a church official reported.
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Last week, vandals pried the iron cross out of a basalt rock altar outside the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes in Tabgha, at the Sea of Galilee, said Georg Roewekamp, as reported by AFP.
Roewekamp, who represents the German Association of the Holy Land that owns the property where the church is located, denounced an "anti-Christian" act.
"It shows that people can invade and desecrate our property," he told AFP.
The Israel Police said it had launched an investigation into the incident.
The church at Tabgha – an Arabization of its original Greek name, Heptapegon – has been targeted before. In 2015, Jewish vandals torched the church, causing extensive damage, and spray-painted graffiti.
Roewekamp said the cross measured some 15 centimeters long (about six inches) and was embedded in a basalt rock altar at an outdoor prayer place on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
He said vandals might have arrived by boat, adding that he had little hope of finding the cross.
"Because the cross was fixed very well in the basalt stone, it was removed … not by coincidence," he added.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
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