WordBulletin

World Bulletin / News Desk

Suspected Israeli vandals set fire to the doors of the Christian monastery and scrawled pro-settler graffiti and religious insults on the monastery outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday, police said, in the latest of a series of attacks on Muslim and Christian sites.

The vandals wrote the phrase "price tag" in Hebrew on the gate of the Monastery of Saint Francis on Mount Zion - a reference to a violent campaign supporting illegal settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The "Price tag" is the retribution some Israeli settlers say they will exact for any attempt by their government to curb settlement in the occupied territory, which Palestinians want as part of a future state.

A police spokesman said a number of people had been charged in connection with several of the incidents, but gave no details.

The group has targeted mosques and, less commonly, Christian buildings.

The monastery of Saint Francis is near the spot where tradition says Jesus gathered his disciples for the Last Supper.

It was the second attack on a Christian institution in less than a month.

"Price tag" attackers set fire to the doors of Latrun monastery in the West Bank on Sept. 4 in a possible retaliation for the eviction of families from an outpost.