THE Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that his country “deeply regrets that a stray ammunition” hit the Holy Family Church — the only Roman Catholic Church in Gaza — on Thursday.
The Israeli strike killed three people. Ten were injured, including the parish priest, Fr Gabriel Romanelli, who was reported to have been “lightly wounded”.
In a statement posted on social media on Thursday, Mr Netanyahu’s office said: “Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. We share the grief of the families and the faithful.” It also thanked Pope Leo “for his words of comfort”, and said that “Israel is investigating the incident and remains committed to protecting civilians and holy sites.”
At approximately 10.20 a.m. on Thursday morning, an Israeli tank fired on the church, where Palestinian refugees were seeking shelter, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said in a statement.
The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) named the three dead as Saad Salameh, 60; Fumayya Ayyad, 84; and Najwa Abu Daoud, 60.
On Sunday, the Pope expressed his “profound sadness” about the strike, and called for “an immediate halt to the barbarism of the war and for a peaceful resolution of the conflict”. He urged the “international community to observe humanitarian law and to respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force and the forced displacement of the population. . .
“To our beloved Middle Eastern Christians I say: I deeply sympathise with your feeling that you can do little in the face of this grave situation. You are in the heart of the Pope and of the whole Church. Thank you for your witness of faith. May the Virgin Mary, woman of the Levant, dawn of the new Sun that has risen in history, protect you always and accompany the world towards the dawn of peace.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on the Thursday that its initial inquiry “suggests that fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly” and that “the cause of the incident is under review.”
The statement continued: “The IDF directs its strikes solely at military targets and makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and religious structures, and regrets any unintentional damage caused to them.”
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem and Cardinal Pizzaballa made a pastoral and humanitarian visit to the Gaza Strip on Friday. In a statement, the Patriarch said: “Where suffering abounds, so too must our responsibility. We do not come from afar; we are of this land, of its sorrows, of its people, and of its perseverance.”
The day before the strike, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, Dr Sean Rowe, issued a letter in which he said that US Episcopalians “have a particular responsibility” as “US policy plays an outsized role in this conflict.”
He urged them to “support a permanent ceasefire and a solution that provides a just and enduring peace. . . Most of all, we must decry in the strongest possible terms any US or Israeli proposal for ethnic cleansing or the removal of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank,” he said.
On Sunday, the Public Square Group issued a statement calling “on the Church of England and the Church in Wales, particularly through their bishops in the House of Lords, to be more vociferous in calling for an immediate end to the genocidal campaign against Palestinians and the continuing holding of hostages by Hamas.
“It really is time for a strong public witness from our Church and nation. In spite of any political pressure to refrain, silence is not an option. Four of our bishops wrote to The Guardian recently about the dire situation on the West Bank. Now is the time to lend support to them, calling for peace, humanity, and justice n Gaza and the West Bank for the sake of Palestinians and Israelis alike.”