GAZA CITY: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced regret after Israeli tank fire killed three people at Gaza’s Holy Family Church, the territory’s only Catholic place of worship. The attack, which also wounded 10, drew condemnation from global leaders and religious figures.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem confirmed the deaths, stating a tank shell struck the church directly at around 10:30 am. Among the injured was parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli. Israel’s military later claimed an initial inquiry suggested fragments from a shell “hit the church mistakenly.”
Netanyahu called the incident tragic, stating, “Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy.” His remarks followed a phone call with US President Donald Trump, who reportedly had “not a positive reaction” to the strike.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Netanyahu acknowledged the attack as a mistake. “It was a mistake by the Israelis to hit that Catholic church, that’s what the prime minister relayed to the president,“ she told reporters.
Images from Gaza’s Al-Ahli Hospital showed the injured receiving treatment, including one patient under a foil blanket. Mourners gathered near two white body bags on the church floor. Shadi Abu Daoud, a displaced man, said his 70-year-old mother was among the dead.
The Latin Patriarchate condemned the attack, noting the church sheltered around 600 displaced people, mostly children and 54 with special needs. “The people in the Holy Family Compound found in the Church a sanctuary,“ it said in a statement.
Pope Leo XIV expressed deep sadness over the incident, recalling the late Pope Francis’s close ties to the church. Foreign leaders, including those from France and Italy, called the strike “unacceptable.”
Gaza’s civil defence reported at least 22 other deaths from Israeli strikes across the territory on the same day. Out of Gaza’s two million residents, only about 1,000 are Christians, with 135 identifying as Catholic.
Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch of Catholic charity l’Oeuvre d’Orient called the raid “totally unacceptable,“ stressing the church was a known peacemaker. “There were no jihadists in this church. There were families, there were civilians,“ he said.
The war, now in its 21st month, has displaced most of Gaza’s population and triggered severe shortages of food and essentials. It began after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has claimed at least 58,667 Palestinian lives, per Gaza’s health ministry.
Media restrictions in Gaza make independent verification of casualty figures difficult. – AFP
