Latin Patriarchate announces 3 deaths in strike on Gaza church
Israel, which is at war with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, said it "never targets" religious sites in the Palestinian territory, adding it was "reviewing" the circumstances under which the church was damaged.
According to local Civil Defense, a total of 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Thursday in the Gaza Strip, where the war began after an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
"This morning, at around 10:20 a.m., the Holy Family Complex in Gaza City [north], belonging to the Latin Patriarchate, was struck by the Israeli army," the Latin Patriarchate said in a statement. "At this time, three people have lost their lives as a result of their injuries, and 10 others have been wounded, two of them in serious condition," it added, revising upward a previous toll of two dead. The church, which is sheltering hundreds of displaced people, suffered damage.
Since the beginning of the war, Father Gabriel Romanelli, who was wounded in the strike, had been regularly communicating by video link with former Pope Francis, who died in April. Inside Gaza City's Al-Ahli hospital, the wounded are receiving care in tents. Among them is Father Romanelli, with a bandage around his leg. Some wounded arrived on stretchers. One is wearing an oxygen mask. Other Palestinians wept beside bodies covered with white mortuary bags lying on the ground.
'Unacceptable'
"In the morning, a tank targeted us and hit the church. Several civilians were killed and wounded," Shadi Abou Daoud, a displaced person whose 70-year-old mother died in the strike, told AFP. According to the Patriarchate, "targeting a sacred site that is sheltering around 600 displaced people, mostly children, is a flagrant violation of human dignity ... and of the sanctity of religious sites, which are supposed to provide safe shelter in times of war."
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told Vatican News: "What we know for certain is that a tank directly hit the church. The Israeli army says it was by mistake, but we are not sure." Pope Leo XIV said he was "deeply saddened" and renewed his call for an "immediate cease-fire" in Gaza, where indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel over a truce are at a standstill.
Israel expressed its "deep sorrow" over the damage and civilian casualties, adding that the army was investigating. "Israel never targets churches or religious sites and regrets any damage to a religious site or uninvolved civilians," the foreign ministry said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused Israel. "Israeli raids on Gaza have hit the Church of the Holy Family. The attacks on the civilian population carried out by Israel for months are unacceptable. No military action can justify such behavior."
'Apologies'
France condemned the "unacceptable" bombing of the Church of the Holy Family. The priest, pastor of the Holy Family parish for many years, remained in Gaza alongside some 400 faithful after the war broke out. The small Catholic community found refuge within the church compound, which also sheltered Orthodox Christians.
The Gaza Strip has about 1,000 Christians out of a population of more than two million people, besieged by Israel since October 2023 and on the brink of famine, according to the United Nations. Most Christians are Orthodox, but according to the Patriarchate, about 135 Catholics live in the Palestinian territory.
"One can wonder if Israel is targeting Christian communities ... This is a place of worship. There was no strategic objective; there were no jihadists in this church. There were families, civilians," Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch, director general of Oeuvre d'Orient, told AFP.
The Oct. 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and launched in retaliation a devastating offensive in which at least 58,667 people, mostly civilians, have been killed, according to Gaza Health Ministry data regarded as reliable by the United Nations.
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