Israel said Thursday that it “deeply regrets” a deadly strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church, the Church of the Holy Family, which killed three people. The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged it hit the church “mistakenly“.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which has jurisdiction for Roman Catholics in Gaza, said the Holy Family Church was struck by Israel on Thursday morning. The church has become a shelter for the enclave’s tiny Christian community amid the 20-month war.
The office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy.”
“Israel is investigating the incident and remains committed to protecting civilians and holy sites,” the office added in a statement. The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged it hit the church “mistakenly“.
Pope Leo received a phone call from Netanyahu on Friday, following the strike, the Vatican said, in which the patriarch expressed the importance of protecting places of worship. During the phone call, which Netanyahu’s office is yet to comment on, Leo renewed his calls for a ceasefire to be reached by the warring sides in Gaza, a statement said.
Pope Leo “again expressed his concern for the dramatic humanitarian situation of the population in Gaza, whose heartbreaking price is paid especially by children, the elderly and the sick,” according to the statement.
When the early morning shell hit the church, about 600 men, women and children had been sheltering there, including about 50 people with disabilities and ill children cared for by the Missionaries of Charity, .
Pope Leo also telephoned Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, July 18, telling him, “It is time to stop this slaughter,” Vatican News reported.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, together with Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, were leading a delegation into Gaza to bring hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid into the enclave and show their support for Gaza’s Catholics, according to a statement from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. This is highly unusual, given Israel’s tight control over access to the Territory.
The two expressed “the shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land and their concern for the community of Gaza,” according to a statement from the Jerusalem Patriarchate.
As they were crossing the border, Pope Leo telephoned the Cardinal to “express his closeness, love, prayer, support and desire to do everything possible for there to be not only a ceasefire but also an end to this tragedy,” the cardinal told Vatican News.
“Pope Leo said repeatedly that it is time to stop this slaughter, and that what has happened is unjustifiable, and that we must ensure there are no more victims,” he said.
The Vatican press office said the pope also told the Cardinal that he intends to do “everything possible to stop the needless slaughter of innocents.”
“With the patriarch (Cardinal Pizzaballa), the pope turned his thoughts to all the innocent victims, those of yesterday’s attack and all those of this time of sorrow in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East,” the press office said in a brief statement. The pope also asked the Cardinal about those who had been injured in the attack and their condition, it said.
Pope Leo then telephoned Father Carlos Ferrero, the provincial superior of the Institute of the Incarnate Word — the religious order to which Father Romanelli belongs — to express “his closeness to those in the community — faithful and religious — who were with him.”
The pope “assures everyone of his prayers and unceasing commitment to peace, the only way that protects humanity on all sides,” it said.
Everyone in Gaza “will not be forgotten, nor will they be abandoned,” the patriarchate said in a written statement July 18.
The two expressed “the shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land and their concern for the community of Gaza,” according to a statement from the Jerusalem Patriarchate.
The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged it hit the church “mistakenly.
Source: Vatican News Service