Israel says it ‘deeply regrets' strike on Gaza's only Catholic church, calls for investigation
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which has jurisdiction for Latin-rite Catholics in Gaza, said the Holy Family Church was struck by Israel on Thursday morning. The church has become a shelter for the enclave's tiny Christian community amid the 20-month war.
The office of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that 'Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza's Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy.'
'Israel is investigating the incident and remains committed to protecting civilians and holy sites,' the office added in a statement.
In a Vatican telegram on Thursday, a church official said Pope Leo XIV is 'deeply saddened' by the strike.
Calling the hit a 'military attack,' the Vatican's Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said: 'In commending the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God, the Holy Father prays for the consolation of those who grieve and for the recovery of the injured.'
Netanyahu's office said he was 'grateful to Pope Leo for his words of comfort.'
The prime minister also told US President Donald Trump in a phone call that the church incident was a 'mistake,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a briefing Thursday. Asked about Trump's view on the strike, Leavitt described it as 'not a positive reaction.'
The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged it hit the church 'mistakenly.'
'An initial inquiry into reports regarding injured individuals in the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, suggests that fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly,' the IDF said in a statement on Thursday.
'The cause of the incident is under review.'
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, told Vatican News that the church was hit 'directly' by a tank Thursday morning.
The parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, was injured in the attack, the patriarchate said, alongside a number of others. Romanelli is an Argentine who has ministered in Gaza for close to 30 years.
It named the three killed as Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad and Najwa Abu Dawood. Several others were also injured.
Images verified by CNN showed the church was damaged in the attack, but the crucifix on top of the church's roof appeared intact.
The church has come under attack once before amid Israel's war in Gaza. In December 2023, an Israeli military sniper shot and killed two women who were sheltering inside, according to the patriarchate.
The church is known internationally for its close connection with the late Pope Francis, who would call the parish almost daily as the war raged on.
Only around 1,000 Christians are thought to have lived in Gaza before the October 7 attacks, which is overwhelmingly a Muslim territory.
Meanwhile ceasefire talks to end the war in Gaza, which Palestinian officials say has killed over 58,000 people, are continuing.
Israel may show flexibility on a key sticking point in the talks, sources have told CNN, as negotiators attempt to close the gaps preventing the first pause in months of fighting.
Specifically, there could be some flexibility from Israel on the potential withdrawal of its troops from the Morag Corridor – a key Israeli security zone in the southern Gaza strip – a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Thursday.
The corridor was established by Israeli forces in April with the stated intention of dividing up Gaza and exerting greater pressure on Hamas. Its name refers to the Jewish settlement of Morag that once lay between the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah in the south of the territory.
The US had talked up the prospects of a quick agreement in the talks, which had gained momentum after a deal ended the brief Israel-Iran conflict last month. But days of talks yielded no breakthrough.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Columbia University janitors settle case after being held hostage by anti-Israel rioters on campus
Two Columbia University maintenance staff workers who alleged they were held hostage by anti-Israel protesters during a riot last year and were forced to scrub swastikas have settled a complaint with the Ivy League school. Lester Wilson and Mario Torres settled with the university for an undisclosed sum, days after Columbia announced a $220 million settlement with the Trump administration for civil rights violations and racially discriminatory practices in an effort to restore federal funding, the New York Post reported. The settlement included $200 million over discrimination claims and another $20 million to employees who alleged they were victims of civil rights violations. Wilson and Torres filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which sparked a civil rights probe into the school. The two men are still moving ahead with a lawsuit against 40 protesters they allege held them hostage inside the school's Hamilton Hall building. The pair, who have reportedly worked at the university for five years, claim they were assaulted as protesters stormed the campus building April 29, 2024. The protesters allegedly "terrorized the two men into the early morning of April 30th, assaulted and battered them, held them against their will," the lawsuit states. When the janitors attempted to "defend" Hamilton Hall from the individuals, they were called "Jew-lovers," "Jew-worker" and "Zionist." At the time, the protesters renamed the building "Hinds Hall." Prior to taking over Hamilton Hall, the protesters allegedly agreed they would "intimidate, harass, bribe, threaten, and/or assault and batter such employees" who posed a threat to their plan, the lawsuit said. At one point, Torres reportedly used a fire extinguisher to defend himself and was hit on the back by protesters while Wilson was shoved and had furniture pushed into him. "'I'm going to get twenty guys up here to f--- you up'," one masked rioter who shoved Torres threatened, according to the complaint. Both custodians claimed they had sustained physical injuries and PTSD as a result of the Hamilton Hall takeover. They have returned to work since, a source told the Post. Officers with the New York Police Department eventually cleared the building and made more than 100 arrests. Before the riot at Hamilton Hall, Torres was required to scrub swastikas and became upset over the feeling that Columbia failed to take aggressive action against the vandals. "They were so offensive, and Columbia's inaction was so frustrating, that he eventually began throwing away chalk that had been left in the classrooms so vandals would not have anything to write with," Torres' complaint alleged. Fox News Digital has reached out to Columbia and Torridon Law, the firm founded by former Attorney General William Barr, which represented the two men in their complaint against the school.
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
The details of Columbia's extraordinary $220 million deal with Trump
From academics to admissions, here's what the Ivy League school agreed to. WASHINGTON – Columbia University just inked a deal with President Donald Trump that's unlike any other in the history of American higher education. The 22-page agreement, meant to address accusations by Trump that Columbia has violated federal laws, is sweeping. Changes to admissions, academic departments, campus security and hiring are all hammered out in it. In return, the deal eases the extraordinary pressure the school has faced since March. Hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding will begin flowing again. Other federal probes, including ones that jeopardized the school's access to financial aid, will cease. For the first time, the accord sets a definitive price tag for a U.S. college to assuage the Trump administration, which has made no secret of its disdain for many universities, especially the richest and most selective ones. For Columbia, the cost of mollifying Trump was steep. Claire Shipman, the university's president, agreed the school would pay a $200 million fine to resolve funding disputes, plus an additional $21 million designated for university employees who said they'd faced discrimination or harm amid campus protests related to the Israel-Hamas war. Read more: How Columbia University became the epicenter of disagreement over the Israel-Hamas war Here are some of the details of the deal: "This was a really, really complex problem," Shipman told CNN the morning after she made the announcement. "I will argue over and over again that choosing to listen, choosing to try to solve the problem with everything that we had at stake is not capitulation." President Trump and Linda McMahon, his education secretary, have touted the agreement, saying it addresses years of conservative grievances with higher education – and offers a blueprint for future deals with campuses facing similar scrutiny. Read more: After $220 million Columbia deal, Trump promises more to come "Columbia's reforms are a roadmap for elite universities that wish to regain the confidence of the American public by renewing their commitment to truth-seeking, merit, and civil debate," McMahon said in a statement following the resolution. "I believe they will ripple across the higher education sector and change the course of campus culture for years to come." Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@ Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @ Veronica Bravo is USA TODAY's graphics art director
CBS News
3 hours ago
- CBS News
Concerns raised over Columbia University's $200 million settlement with Trump administration over antisemitism on campus
There are concerns about how the recent settlement between Columbia University and the Trump administration could impact dozens of other schools under investigation for antisemitism on campus. Columbia will pay more than $200 million to resolve the allegations, but the school continues to deny any wrongdoing. The school's president addressed the issue on Thursday. This fall, the policy changes Columbia promised the Trump administration it would make are going to be monitored by Bart Schwartz, who was most recently the watchdog for the New York City Housing Authority. David Bloomfield, an education law professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center and Brooklyn College, said he's concerned. "It's extraordinary to have a federal monitor looking over the shoulder of a private university the way Rikers was under a federal monitor," Bloomfield said. The New York Civil Liberties Union has called the agreement a form of capitulation, which the university's interim president, Claire Shipman, pushed back on Thursday on CNN. "Courage versus capitulation is just wrong. It's too simplistic," Shipman said. "Yes, we had many other legal options, that's true, but we did look carefully at that, and we saw we could have some short-term victories. But we worried we would have long-term damage." Shipman cited the potential loss of important research, but Bloomfield said what's also troubling is the university agreeing to "maintain merit-based admissions policies" and provide "all-female sports, locker rooms and showering facilities." The NYCLU said it worries the school is losing academic freedom, with a senior vice provost conducting a "thorough review" of the Middle Eastern Studies Department. "They will not allow criticism of Israel. That's not academic," NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. "How on earth can students learn if they don't have the freedom to engage in discourse, in discourse dialogue, free from threat they will be expelled or suspended?" In addition to Columbia, New York University had also been under scrutiny by the Trump administration for potential civil rights violations. Gerard Filitti, senior counsel for the group EndJewHatred, said the agreement fails to address the root cause of antisemitism. "For example, Columbia saying masks are not allowed at unauthorized protests, but it's not saying they can't be worn at all. It's saying taking over academic buildings may be bad, but it doesn't completely ban protest from them," Filitti said. Filitti said the school also falls short of acknowledging that antizionism is antisemitism, saying that clarity is needed to protect pro-Israel and Jewish students. The University of Pennsylvania also previously settled with the Trump administration, while Harvard University remains in litigation.
