Israel Targeted Churches, Mosques, and Markets during the Genocide.

Gaza City is home to landmarks such as the Church of Saint Porphyrius, the Great Mosque and Gaza’s al-Zawiya and gold markets.

These landmarks testify to Gaza’s archaeological history, religious significance and commercial heritage.

But throughout its genocide in the Gaza Strip, Israel has wreaked havoc on these places.

The Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius is located in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoon neighborhood, with roughly 20 Christian homes standing around it.

The church is believed to be the third-oldest in the world.

But its heritage and status as a place of worship didn’t deter Israel from bombing the church on 19 October 2023, targeting the church’s annex building and killing 17 Palestinian Christians who were sheltering there.

“It was the greatest catastrophe of our lives,” Fuad Ayyad, a Christian working at the church, told The Electronic Intifada.

“I can still see the faces and bodies of the martyrs I collected with my own hands, the children I buried myself,” Ayyad, 44, said. “It was the first time in our history that a church – a house of worship – was directly targeted.”

The Christian community sought refuge in Gaza’s churches during the genocide.

More than 400 sought refuge in Saint Porphyrius, while a few hundred meters away, the Latin convent, which comprises the Catholic Holy Family Church, sheltered around 500 others.

On 16 December 2023, an Israeli sniper fatally shot two Christian women while they were sheltering at the Holy Family Church.

On 18 July 2025, an Israeli artillery shell struck the Holy Family Church, killing three Christians.

Churches weren’t safe havens only for Christians.

The Saint Porphyrius Church, Ayyad said, was also housing Palestinian Muslims.

But “the Israeli army makes no distinction between a Christian or a Muslim,” Ayyad said.

The 19 October 2023 bombing, he said, killed another Muslim man who was sheltering at the church.

“The church lost its majesty, but it still carries the memory of coexistence and love,” Ayyad said, referring to the 2014 Gaza war when the church sheltered Palestinian Muslims during Ramadan, Muslims’ holy month, where they broke their fasts and worshiped god.

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