Christians have been flocking to this dusty Israeli town to see what locals are calling a miracle: streaks of what looks like oil mysteriously dripping down an icon of St George at a Greek Orthodox church named for the legendary third century dragon slayer.

Worshippers said the more than two dozen streaks might represent God's tears or the Christian rite of baptism.

The church priest, Father Nifon, first saw the streaks while preparing for Sunday morning services, they said.

"He kissed all the icons, and when he reached that one, he took down the picture and he cleaned it," said Aida Abu el-Edam, an English teacher and long-time church member.

"After 20 or 25 minutes, he looked again and he saw the oil again and said, 'This is a miracle'."

El-Edam, 47, said she was convinced the streaks were a miracle in part because of a strange smell emanating from the icon. She said it reminded her of her visit as a teenager to the site of a miracle in Ermysh, Lebanon. There, she said, the odour came from a recently deceased woman whose Christian faith was legendary.

"It's a special, holy smell," she said.

"It's not ordinary, like olive oil. It's something strange that comes from God."

The Greek Orthodox patriarch inspected the painting and the church has sent a sample of the oil to a laboratory.

Father Nifon said the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate had asked him not to speak publicly or to answer questions about the streaks, so that believers could draw their own conclusions.

About 50 Christians crowded around the icon, some from near Ramla and others from other parts of Israel. They were joined by curious Jews and Muslims, some snapping mobile phone pictures.

Ramla, a mixed Jewish-Arab town of 65,000, is in central Israel between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The icon hangs near the front of the church, hidden from most pews by a small gold chandelier. A nun dressed in black was rubbing the bottom of the icon with cotton balls, which she handed to the faithful who sometimes smelled them before clutching them to their chests.

"People these days, they've forgot God and this is a sign to tell them, 'I'm still here'," said Edith Fanous, 31, who works for a local trucking company and said she had been attending St George's since she was a child.

Fanous said she was singing in the church choir when the oil streaks appeared. She guessed as many as 1000 visitors had been to the church since then.

She dismissed the idea that the streaks could just be paint running on a hot day.

"This icon is 114 years old," Fanous said.

"It passed through so much weather, hot and cold. And now that we have air-conditioning in the church it's started to melt? I don't think so."

Kosty Tannous, 33, an Israeli customs worker, said he thought the streaks might have appeared now because God saw trouble in Israeli society.

"There's war and discrimination," he said.

"I see a lot of discrimination against Arabs here in Israel, and maybe this is a good lesson for everybody to love each other and live with each other with equal rights."

RAMLA AP