The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem said the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) struck Gaza’s sole Catholic Church in a raid on Thursday morning, according to Vatican News.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who serves as the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem and main Catholic ecclesiastical authority over the Gaza parish, told Vatican News that an IDF tank struck the Holy Family Catholic Church, seriously injuring four people, with two succumbing to their injuries. The parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, was reportedly among the injured.
“What we know for sure is that a tank, the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this, they hit the Church directly, the Church of the Holy Family, the Latin Church”, Pizzaballa told Vatican News. “There are four people seriously wounded, among these four, two are in very dramatic conditions and their lives are in serious danger.”
The IDF did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Holy Family Catholic Church hosts around 500 displaced Christians within its walls in the Gaza Strip, according to Vatican News. Around 1,300 Christians are known to live in Gaza, according to a 2022 State Department report.
Pope Leo XIV condemned the strikes in a statement Thursday, saying that he was “deeply saddened” to learn of the attack while also renewing his calls for a ceasefire.
“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,” the Pope said in the statement. “His Holiness renews his call for an immediate ceasefire, and he expresses his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region.”
Christians in Gaza face persecution and hardship due to their comparatively small size and heavy Islamic presence in the strip due to Hamas’ hegemony. The number of Christians in Gaza continues to dwindle as the humanitarian crisis worsens in the strip, but remains an area of interest for the Catholic Church at-large.
Negotiations remain ongoing between Israel, the U.S. and Hamas to reach a ceasefire agreement, with peace being a potential stepping stone to normalization of relations between the Arab states and Israel. Israel began bombing the Syrian capital on Tuesday after reports of the new Government forces attacking the Druze minority in southern Syria.
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