Authorities are investigating pro-Palestinian graffiti that defaced a nativity scene on Boston Common overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning.

Boston police officers responded to a report of the graffiti at around 8 a.m. Thursday, finding the base of the nativity scene vandalized with white painting that read “Jesus was Palestinian,” a department spokesperson said.

By early afternoon, staffers from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department had covered the message with paint matching the wood of the nativity scene, facing part of the Freedom Trail walking path near Tremont Street.

The Parks and Recreation Department has installed the nativity scene for nearly 100 years, with it going up this year the week after Thanksgiving, officials said.

The incident comes amid the Israel-Hamas war. It follows a graffiti incident in early November in which taggers wrote “Free Palestine” on the WBZ-TV CBS Boston Allston headquarters.

Boston Common, decorated with holiday lights, was the scene of a graffiti incident last January when Congresswoman Katherine Clark’s daughter, Jared “Riley” Dowell, allegedly defaced its bandstand with a tagging that read “NO COP CITY” and “ACAB” (All Cops Are Ba******).