Thursday witnessed another Israeli strike on a church in Gaza, which killed three people and injured at least six others. Among the wounded was the parish priest.
Hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering at Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City when the church roof was hit around 10:10am local time, church officials describe. Shrapnel and debris came down through the roof and went flying, killing and wounding Christians inside.
While most circulating reports say an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank directly fired on the church, a spokesman for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem initially said it was unclear whether the munition was launched from an airplane or a tank. The neighborhood and area were coming under heavy Israeli gunfire at the time.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who oversees the church, clarified in a statement to Vatican News, “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.”
He indicated that more victims might succumb to their injuries: “There are four people seriously wounded, among these four, two are in very dramatic conditions and their lives are in serious danger,” Pizzaballa said.
Pope Leo XIV has called for “an immediate cease-fire” in Gaza in a statement. His predecessor, Pope Francis, was known to have personally phoned Holy Family Catholic Church on a nightly basis to see how the community was faring, even when he was in the hospital.
Hellbound and Down 