
Two dead and several injured after Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church
A man and a woman died, and several people were wounded in "an apparent strike by the Israeli army" on Gaza's Holy Family Church, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement.
The Holy Family Church is the only Catholic church inside the besieged Palestinian enclave.
"We pray that their souls rest (in peace) and for an end to this barbaric war. Nothing can justify the targeting of innocent civilians," said the Patriarchate, which oversees the church.
In a telegram for the victims signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's Secretary of State, Pope Leo said he was "deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack."
He "assures the parish priest, father Gabriele Romanelli, and the whole parish community of his spiritual closeness," the telegram said.
The Pope renewed his "call for an immediate ceasefire, and he expresses his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region."
Among those injured was Father Gabriele Romanelli, an Argentine, who used to regularly update Francis about the war ravaging Gaza. He suffered light leg injuries, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said.
The church was sheltering both Christians and Muslims, including several children with disabilities, according to Fadel Naem, acting director of Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the wounded.
At least two people were in critical condition, and others injured included one child with disabilities, two women, and an elderly person, Mr Naem said.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem added that the church had sustained damage.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blamed Israel for the attack.
She wrote on X, formerly Twitter: 'Israeli raids on Gaza also hit the Holy Family Church.
'The attacks against the civilian population that Israel has been carrying out for months are unacceptable. No military action can justify such behaviour.'
A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it was 'aware of reports regarding damage caused to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and casualties at the scene. The circumstances of the incident are under review.'
'The IDF makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian structures, including religious sites, and regrets any damage caused to them,' its statement added.
The church is just a stone's throw from Al-Ahli Hospital, Mr Naem said, noting that the area around both the church and the hospital has been repeatedly struck for over a week.
Only 1,000 Christians live in Gaza, an overwhelmingly Muslim territory, according to the US State Department's international religious freedom report for 2024. The report says the majority of Palestinian Christians are Greek Orthodox, but they also include other Christians, including Roman Catholics.
In the last 18 months of his life, Francis would often call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.
Francis called the only Catholic church in the strip hours after the war in Gaza began in October 2023. It marked the start of what the Vatican News Service would describe as a nightly routine throughout the war.
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The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
There is a dangerous disconnect: on Gaza, politics no longer speaks for the people
It was meant to be a cosy conversation about cooking and new motherhood. But BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour took an unexpectedly bleak turn on Thursday morning, when the chef Yasmin Khan turned suddenly tearful in the middle of promoting her new cookbook, saying she couldn't talk about her own struggles to breastfeed without mentioning the mothers in Gaza unable to provide for their literally starving babies. It was a striking illustration of how far this medieval horror has broken through, bleeding across the everyday lives even of people who don't usually follow politics. You don't have to know anything about the Middle East to understand what those newspaper pictures of emaciated children, with their drawn little faces and heartbreakingly visible ribs, mean. This is what famine looks like, right down to the return of Bob Geldof, begging the world to act just as he did 40 years ago at Live Aid. Except this time it's no natural disaster, but what the World Health Organization calls a man-made mass starvation: the chillingly avoidable consequence of an aid system forcing people to choose between risking their lives for a bag of flour, or dying for lack of one. More than 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking food in Gaza since May, according to the UN. Médecins Sans Frontières says even its staff, lucky enough still to be earning salaries, are now going hungry: there's almost nothing left to buy in the markets. The newswire Agence France-Presse spoke of watching helplessly as its Palestinian freelancers, who have risked everything to get news out of Gaza when foreign journalists can't get in, become too weak to work. Meanwhile, back in Britain, people who want to see arrests for war crimes read instead about clampdowns on pro-Palestine activists. That ministers have been quick to empathise with the frustrations of a very different crowd protesting at the housing of asylum seekers in hotels merely adds salt to the wounds. Labour MPs are openly desperate now for their government to do something more than issue dramatically worded threats of future action that never quite materialises. Even cabinet ministers are publicly lobbying for the formal recognition of Palestinian statehood while (in the words of Wes Streeting, who could easily lose his marginal Ilford North seat over this war) there's still a Palestine left. Recognition would be a largely symbolic act of solidarity, which in itself would do little to fill hungry bellies in Gaza. But ministers' problem is that there seems increasingly little reason for not doing it now: the longstanding argument that this prize should be saved for the right moment, to help unlock progress towards a two-state solution, made more sense when the two-state dream wasn't being actively crushed in front of us. But perhaps the real plea here is for Keir Starmer to recognise the country he actually leads. After the horrors of the 7 October 2023 massacre, there was broad acceptance that Israel could not be expected simply to sit back and do nothing. Even a year into what was by then a highly divisive war, YouGov found that more than half of Britons still felt Israel had been justified in going into Gaza. But critically, only 14% felt its use of force there was proportionate. Sympathy has drained away as Israel's war of self-defence began to resemble first one of vengeance, and then something darker. In language no former Israeli prime minister uses lightly, Ehud Olmert has described a proposal to corral Palestinians into a settlement on the ruins of Rafah and prevent them leaving as in effect a 'concentration camp'. More than half of Britons now favour financial sanctions like those slapped on prominent Russians over Ukraine, or suspending arms sales. These arguments are now mainstream, cross-party – the veteran Tory MPs Kit Malthouse and Edward Leigh made passionate cases in parliament this week for recognising Palestine – and driven not by the kind of creeping antisemitism Starmer was quite right to confront in his own party, but by what people see every morning, scrolling through their phones. David Lammy's rhetoric is already about as strong as a foreign secretary's can get – this week he condemned Israel's 'inhumane' and 'dangerous' new aid system, and what he called 'settler terrorism' in the West Bank – and many Labour MPs suspect he'd privately like to go further than the sanctions and restrictions on arms sales he listed. But Downing Street is said to be wary of getting ahead of Donald Trump at a crucial stage in ceasefire negotiations (with Israel's parliament going into summer recess, relieving some pressure on the minority government of its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, it's hoped there is a window for a deal). Britain has always argued that our influence over Israel is best magnified by synchronising efforts with the US, and though the chaos of this White House makes that harder, Trump's is still the only voice Netanyahu really hears. Yet while everyone prays for that ceasefire deal to be done, a dangerous gap is opening in Britain between parliament and people. A year into power, Starmer is increasingly adept at foreign policy, but much less so at handling the emotive domestic blowback from it. Without seeing the intelligence reports crossing the desk of the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, I wouldn't second-guess her decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terror group. A breach of security at RAF Brize Norton was never going to be taken lightly. But, inevitably, the process of police officers trying to figure out in real time what elderly vicars can or can't now say in public about Palestine has caused its share of farce and fury. After a retired teacher was arrested for allegedly holding a sign featuring a Private Eye cartoon about the proscription, West Yorkshire police issued an unusual statement saying they were sorry if he was 'unhappy with the circumstances' of his arrest. As with this summer's other prospective powder keg, the protests building up outside some asylum seeker accommodation, doubtless everyone is learning as they go. There is, however, only so much policing can do to resolve what are really political conflicts, born in both cases of frustration with what both sets of protesters (in their very different ways) see as political failure to act. To hold together all these volatile, mutually hostile parts of a fractured society through a hot and angry summer will be head-spinningly complicated, a daunting ask even for an experienced government. Yet that's the nature of the job Starmer applied for last July. A year on, we must all hope he is equal to it. Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.


Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
STEPHEN DAISLEY: If John Swinney fancies himself as a global statesman, it's time to put up or shut up
Donald Trump 's visit to Scotland is an opportunity – if we choose to grasp it. The US President is coming to Aberdeenshire for the grand opening of his Menie golf course, which joins Trump Turnberry in Ayrshire as part of his business empire. Where goes Trump, so go dollars. The 79-year-old is the most powerful man in the world. One squiggle from his pen can authorise the spending of vast sums, erect or dismantle barriers to trade, and clear the path for private sector investment. This weekend could be a godsend for Scotland's struggling business sector, pumping in much-needed cash and cracking open the door to new markets. It's essential, then, that this visit is handled wisely. Some will turn up waving placards and Palestine flags, but no one with Scotland's interests at heart will have anything to do with such stunts. Trump will be a guest and should be accorded the respect the American President merits. His doctrine is 'America First' and it means punishing nations he thinks are ripping off the US and rewarding those who deal fairly. Reward and punishment are the two pillars of the Trump administration and of his outlook on life. Whether in the boardroom, the TV studio or the Oval Office, he has practised a carrot and stick philosophy. Do what he wants, and he will make it to your benefit. Cross him, and there will be a price to pay. Trump's worldview is Manichean: you're either supportive, and ostentatiously so, or you're the enemy. There is no middle ground. In our personal lives, most of us would avoid such a volatile personality. We would probably consider it the hallmark of a swaggering egomaniac who has gone through his life without hearing the word 'No' often enough. But diplomacy is another world and different rules apply. Just as we roll out the red carpet for sundry despots and demagogues – President Outlawed-the-Opposition and Crown Prince No-Votes-For-Women – so too must we put on the niceties for heads of state of friendly democracies, no matter how distasteful we might find them personally or politically. The Scottish Government wants to involve itself in international relations? This is the price. Suck up or go home. That, frankly, is what the First Minister must do with Trump. He needn't prostrate himself. Diplomacy with dignity should be his strategy. Swinney should treat the President with all the respect he would have Barack Obama or another US politician more to his political liking. Be gracious, welcome him warmly, laugh at his jokes and keep a game face the whole time. Don't allow the photographers to capture an incautious eye roll or the TV cameras to pick up an ill-considered mutter. Self-control and courtesy at all times. Diplomacy also requires a certain razzmatazz. Schedules are already locked in for this visit, but Swinney should work with Downing Street on securing a future Scotland visit during which the Scottish Government could put on a proper show. Have a piper waiting to greet Trump on the tarmac, skirling a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. Take him on a tour of the Irn-Bru factory in Cumbernauld, and try to change his mind about the other national drink. (The orange nectar was banned at Turnberry after guests spilled their drinks and stained the costly carpets.) Trump places great stock in his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, and her roots on the Isle of Lewis. He will be unveiling a new golf course at Menie which will have a memorial garden in her honour. Swinney could announce a Mary Anne MacLeod bursary, additional financial support to help Lewis retain vital skills such as teaching or nursing. Pander to Trump but do so in a way that opponents can hardly complain about. Flattering Trump's ego would require a great deal of pride to be swallowed but it could pay dividends in investment and preferential treatment secured for Scotland. Not only for obvious sectors like tourism and whisky, either. Renewables, digital technology and life sciences are among the most common foreign industries for US investors, and Scotland has a good story to tell on all three. Attracting American cash would mean jobs and growth. Another market where Trump could be useful is the creative industries. Scotland continues to attract Hollywood productions looking to film in cheaper locations than Los Angeles or New York. The next Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day starring Tom Holland, will do much of its location shooting in Glasgow, which will stand in for New York as it did in 2023's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. When I argued in the Mail four years ago that the Scottish Government should prioritise support for the screen industry, film production employed 4,000 people in Scotland and generated less than £100million annually. Today, it's 11,000 jobs and more than £600million. However, the Trump administration's planned 100 per cent tariffs on US productions which shoot overseas could devastate Scotland's screen sector. Here is another area where good relations with Trump could help us escape the worst of his policies and do so to the benefit of our pockets. Swinney might not welcome this advice. He is not as stubbornly ideological on Trump as some of his MSPs and much of his party's grassroots, but given his Christian faith I doubt he thinks much of a man of Trump's character. HE should take a lesson from Ian Murray, who has come in for some flak for talking up Trump's visit when he backed a motion in 2019 urging the UK Government to withdraw an invitation to the president. Some might see that as hypocrisy but it looks to me like political maturity. It's easy to sound off when you're a backbencher and the world seems black and white, but ministerial office brings with it responsibility to interests higher than your self-righteousness. Murray is putting the country and its political, economic and security interests ahead of his own misgivings. Swinney should do the same.


Scottish Sun
7 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Donald Trump has done more for us than the Scottish Government – Swinney & the SNP could learn a lot
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) LOCALS living near Donald Trump's luxury golf resorts have hailed the US President - insisting he's doing more for the local economy than politicians here. The support comes despite plans from trade unions and eco warriors to stage demos over his trip to Scotland. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 7 Donald Trump received praise from some locals near his golf courses Credit: Reuters 7 David Semple is a big fan of Trump Credit: Les Gallagher 7 Stephannie Campbell is not a fan of Trump's politics - but says he's had a positive economic impact within her community Credit: Les Gallagher David Semple, 71, runs three self-catering holiday lets in the village of Maidens, close to Turnberry in Ayrshire. The grandad, of Alloway, said: 'I'm a big fan of Trump. There's not much to do around here and Donald employs several hundred people directly and indirectly through the hotel - caddies, caterers, hotel staff, transport, taxis, fencers, painters. The list is endless. He's even invested in the infrastructure. 'There's nothing else for people around here. Donald Trump has done more for the local economy for the last ten years than the Scottish Government has in the last 15 years.' And he reckons FM John Swinney and PM Kier Starmer could learn a thing or two from the president. He said: 'Trump sticks to a plan. He started it and he's almost finished it. He's done exactly what he said he was going to do - it's on the tin. 'They should listen to him. He shoots from the hip, he talks the talk - he gets things done, quickly and efficiently. 'They would learn an awful lot from Donald Trump, even if they don't agree with him. They should look at his business model - it works.' He condemned the attacks on the hotel by Palestine supporters earlier this year, which saw a delay in the reopening, adding: 'These mindless people who decided to attack Trump's ideals, didn't take into consideration the amount of money that was lost by local people - caddies, restauranteers, shop retailers. "The impact to Trump personally, was zero.' Police Scotland ramps up security for Donald Trump visit as officers unhappy with extra shift demands Stephannie Campbell, a waitress at the nearby Balkenna Tea Room, is not a fan of Trump's presidency and his politics - but says he's had a positive economic impact within her community. The 30-year-old, of Maidens, who previously worked at Turnberry as a chef, added: 'I think people in Scotland as a whole won't be welcoming him into Scotland with open arms, but those who are very local to here will be - and that's because most people work or have worked for him. 'As an employer, as a boss, he's excellent. I didn't leave because he came president - but personally, I would have a hard time going back to work there now. 'The hotel was kind of struggling a bit before he bought it, it wasn't financially viable, since then he brings an awful lot of business from America - people come here just for the Trump name. 7 John Ingram reckons Trump is a genius Credit: Michal Wachucik/Abermedia 7 Apprentice Matthew Florence things Trump will help put Aberdeen on the map Credit: Michal Wachucik/Abermedia 7 Heather Chivas thinks help from Donald Trump should be a last resort Credit: Michal Wachucik/Abermedia 7 Irena Townend thinks Aberdeen has always been a low priority for the Scottish Government Credit: Michal Wachucik/Abermedia 'We even get Americans coming into this wee cafe, who aren't necessarily visiting and staying at Turnberry, and they'll go into all the local shops in the area. 'If he hadn't have bought Turnberry and we lost it, it would've been devastating for the area so I think in that regard, you have to commend him.' She said the locals depend on seasonal business, adding: 'We're a coastal village, we make a lot of our money on tourism. 'We have to make enough money within two months in summer to see us through the winter, so there needs to be a promotion there, and money put into these areas. 'People are even struggling to get social houses down here, so it means a lot of the work here is seasonal, making it not a very nice place to live in the winter. 'So this investment shouldn't be down to Trump - we need the Scottish Government to recognise that and support us.' Debra Ellis, tea room manager, said: 'I never had a problem with the guy - until he attacked Iran. 'But political views aside, he's alright. I didn't meet him personally, but met his son Eric, who was really nice. 'I used to work at the hotel as a housekeeper and was treated well, staff get little perks - like discounts off food. The only reason I gave up the job was because it was hard work physically. Everyone there still speaks highly of him.' The 60-year-old said the Trump name has brought much needed money to the local area. She added: 'The footfall we get, and other businesses get from his name being on that hotel, has been positive. He's essentially financially propped up the area by creating loads of jobs. 'What he needs to do is ask John Swinney to drive more money into our community - we need more prospects and amenities for our youth.' Lindsay Russell, manager of the Wildlings Hotel and Restaurant in nearby Maidens, added: 'I've got no problem with Trump. The amount of money he brings to this area is everything.' Donald Trump's first Scots golf course is ten miles outside Aberdeen. He vowed to build the 'best golf course in the world' when he bought the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire in 2006. Kitchen manager Martin Lyon, 43, said: 'He's done more for us than the Scottish Government by miles. 'His golf course has created jobs and that puts money into the local economy. He should tell Starmer and Swinney to put their own people first. Like he's done in the USA. I feel like a stranger in my own country.' Engineer John Ingram, 50, said: 'Trump is a genius. 'He doesn't mess about. 'He has done a lot more for this area than anyone else. The council can't even fix the roads and he's built a big business. 'I'd be happy if he got Starmer and Swinney to resign." Pensioner and great-granny Irena Townend, 86, said: 'Aberdeen has always been a low priority for the Scottish Government because of the oil. 'I don't see how any of what Trump has done here can be bad for us. 'He needs to tell the Prime Minister and First Minister to wise up. I worry about the mess that's going to be left for my great-grandkids." Apprentice Matthew Florence, 18, said: 'Trump coming here is pretty cool. 'He's putting Aberdeen on the map and giving us a lot of recognition.' But not everyone is a fan Heather Chivas, 68, said: 'Help from Trump is a last resort. 'I think he's the last person you want to have on charge of your country. He's going to cause a lot of problems when he's here. 'I don't know where the money is going to come from to pay for the whole operation.'