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| - Israeli police said they arrested a man for allegedly attempting to set fire to east Jerusalem's Gethsemane church on Friday. Police were questioning a 49-year-old suspect who had "poured flammable liquid inside the church", causing damage, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. A spokesperson for the firefighters said four teams were dispatched to the site but the fire had "luckily not spread throughout the church". An AFP photographer said smoke had blackened some pews. Wadie Abunassar, a spokesman for the local clergy, said the suspect was "an Orthodox Jew who set fire to the interior of the church", and he alleged there were possible "racist motives" behind the attack. Located at the foot of the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane is the biblical site where Jesus went to pray after the Last Supper, and where he was arrested before his trial and crucifixion. The church, also known as the Church of All Nations, is in the annexed mainly-Arab eastern sector of the Holy City, which is occupied and annexed by Israel. The Palestinian presidency, based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, condemned what it called a "heinous terrorist attack" and held Israel responsible for "attacks against Palestinians, their holy places and their properties", the official WAFA agency reported. alv/cgo/sw/hc
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