An Israeli strike on July 17 hit the only Roman Catholic church in the Palestinian autonomous territory known as the Gaza Strip. It is the Holy Family Church, the Latin (Roman Catholic) Patriarchate of Jerusalem said. Two people were killed. The charity Caritas Jerusalem said the dead included a 60-year-old parish guard and an 84-year-old woman who was receiving psychosocial support on the church grounds. Initial reports indicate four people were seriously injured and four others with minor injuries, according to a spokesman for the campaign to Protect Christians in the Holy Places. The shelling damaged the church’s courtyard, where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge from the war. The local Roman Catholic priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, was wounded in the leg. In response to the attack, Pope Leo XIV renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. In a rare move, the Israeli Foreign Ministry issued an apology on social media, and the Israeli army said it was investigating, as they usually do.
On July 18, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem also strongly condemned the attack. The statement said:
“The Patriarchate of Jerusalem strongly condemns the attack targeting the Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza. This attack caused significant damage and casualties in the parish complex, endangering the lives of innocent people, especially people with special needs and displaced persons seeking refuge in the church. The attack on a holy site, which is currently hosting some 600 displaced persons, most of whom are children and 54 people with disabilities, constitutes a gross violation of human dignity, as well as the sanctity of life and religious sites, which should be a safe haven in times of war.
The shelling destroyed a large part of the complex and people with special needs were forced to leave. Some of them were unable to take with them the breathing apparatus they needed, which put their lives in immediate danger.
At this critical moment, the Patriarchate reaffirms that churches are spiritual and humanitarian beacons that serve everyone without discrimination. It calls on the international community and the United Nations agencies to provide urgent protection for religious institutions and humanitarian centers in the Gaza Strip and to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law, which criminalizes attacks on civilians and places of worship. Our prayers accompany the victims, hoping that wisdom will prevail over the war machine, and the voice of mercy will prevail over the fire.”
The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church also issued another address on the complex situation in the Middle East. On July 18, the synod website published an address on the siege of the Gaza Strip and the humanitarian catastrophe in the region. The synodal hierarchs call for an immediate end to the blockade of Gaza and the provision of humanitarian and medical assistance to the residents. The Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church states that it cannot remain indifferent and indifferent to the suffering of the people, and this motivates their another address and request for prayerful support of the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilus, his clergy and flock. The text of the address reads:
“For months, the world community has witnessed the cruel siege of the Gaza Strip, which has led to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. Thousands of our brothers and sisters have already lost their lives; dozens are injured; two million people are doomed to a shortage of food, drinking water, medicine, electricity and fuel, while bombs continue to fall over their heads. Innocent and unarmed people are killed every day – many young children, women, the elderly, defenseless, sick and vulnerable people. The imposed blockade, understood as a “collective punishment” over hundreds of thousands of innocent people, contradicts all the norms of international law, of universal human morality, but above all and most of all – of the divine gospel law. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” (Gen. 4: 10) – and today this shed blood cries out to heaven and to our conscience.
We cannot remain silent, indifferent and indifferent. Therefore, we demand an immediate and unconditional end to the blockade, for free and guaranteed access for humanitarian aid and medical teams. We call on all responsible national and international organizations and religious communities to exert real pressure for a permanent cessation of hostilities and for the protection of the civilian population; for the release of hostages and those unjustly detained; for the establishment of a sustainable mechanism for a just peace based on equality and security for all.
We remind you that any inaction in the face of the obvious suffering of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is complicity: “It is a sin for him who knows how to do good and does not do it” (James 4:17). It is high time that the voice of compassion prevails over the voice of weapons, mercy over revenge, and justice over injustice. Let us raise our voices for those who no longer have the strength to speak. Let us extend a hand to them before their pain turns into a new, unbridgeable chasm between the nations. For, “Whoever stops his ear from the cry of the poor, he himself will cry out, and they will not hear” (Prov. 21:13).
Once again, we express our fraternal prayerful support to His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilus III of Jerusalem, to the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, to His Eminence Archbishop Alexy of Tiberias, Patriarchal Epitrop in Gaza, to the holy clergy and the long-suffering flock of the “Mother of Churches” – Holy Zion Church.
May the All-Merciful God protect and preserve His innocent children and bring to reason all responsible factors on whom the lifting of the blockade and the restoration of peace depend!”
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First published in this link of The European Times.
