Two Christian women – an elderly mother and her daughter – were shot dead by an Israeli soldier on the grounds of a Catholic church in Gaza City, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem announced.
“Around noon (10:00 GMT) today… an Israeli army sniper murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza” where Christian families were sheltered since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the patriarchate said in a statement. a statement on Saturday.
“Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed on their way to the sisters’ convent. One was killed while trying to carry the other to safety,” the statement said.
The patriarchate stressed that no warning had been given before the shooting began and added that “they were shot in cold blood inside the Parish enclosure, where there was no no belligerent.”
Seven other people were also shot and injured while trying to protect others, according to the release.
“This is a targeted campaign of death during the Christmas period against the oldest Christian community in the world,” Hammam Farah, a family member of Nahida and Samar, said in a statement on X.
This morning, Israeli snipers shot dead my two family friends in an attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza.
Nahida (Um Emad Anton) and Samar, mother and daughter, were heading to the sisters’ convent to use the only bathroom.
One of them was killed while trying to… pic.twitter.com/ZtTxgsDrVf
– Hammam Farah (@hammam_therapy) December 17, 2023
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud said from Rafah in southern Gaza that the church, which housed Christians in Gaza, was the target of direct Israeli bombardment in recent days.
“A lot of it was destroyed. Snipers shoot at all moving objects in the yard,” he added.
In its statement, the patriarchate said three projectiles fired by an Israeli tank also hit a convent of the Sisters of Mother Teresa charity, destroying its generator and fuel reserves, and rendering a building housing 54 disabled people uninhabitable. .
“The 54 disabled people are currently displaced and do not have access to the ventilators that some of them need to survive,” the statement added.
According to the Vatican press agency, the strikes injured three people.
“The remaining 800 Christians in Gaza are on the brink of extinction. They made life very difficult for this community,” Mahmoud said.
Pope deplores killings
Pope Francis deplored the killings on Sunday, saying Israel was using “terrorism” tactics in Gaza.
“I continue to receive very serious and painful news from Gaza,” Francis said during his weekly blessing.
“Unarmed civilians are the targets of bombings and shootings. And this happened even within the parish complex of the Holy Family, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, sick or disabled people, nuns.
Francis said the two women were killed by “snipers” and also referred to the Patriarchate’s statement that a convent of nuns in the order founded by Mother Teresa was damaged by tank fire Israelis.
“Some would say, ‘It’s war.’ It’s terrorism. Yes, it’s war. This is terrorism,” he said.
It was the second time in less than a month that the pope used the word “terrorism” when speaking about events in Gaza.
On November 22, after meeting separately with Israeli relatives of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians with family in Gaza, he said: “This is what wars do. But here we have gone beyond wars. It’s not war. It’s terrorism.
Who are the Christians in Gaza?
Christians in Gaza are one of the oldest communities in the Middle East, dating back to the first century.
However, the number of Christians in Gaza has declined in recent years. Today, only about 1,000 remain, a sharp decline from the 3,000 recorded in 2007, when Hamas took full control of the enclave.
According to Kamel Ayyad, spokesperson for the Saint-Porphyry church, recently bombed by Israel, the majority of the population comes from Gaza itself.
The rest arrived here after the establishment of the State of Israel, which led to the displacement of around 700,000 Palestinians – an event they call the Nakba, or “catastrophe.”
The Israeli blockade of Gaza following Hamas’s rise to power in 2007 accelerated the flight of Christians from this poverty-stricken enclave.
“It has become very difficult for people to live here,” Ayyad said. “Many Christians have left for the West Bank, America, Canada or the Arab world, in search of better education and better health. »
While most Christians in Gaza belong to the Greek Orthodox faith, a smaller number worship at the Holy Family Catholic Church and the Gaza Baptist Church.
“Living under siege”
After Saturday’s church attack, Italy’s top diplomat, Antonio Tajani, issued a “sincere appeal to the Israeli government and military to protect Christian places of worship.”
“This is not where the Hamas terrorists are hiding,” he said on X.
Under recent Israeli bombings, Christians and Muslims have sought refuge in several churches in Gaza, such as that of Saint Porphyry.
But after this church was bombed, they all moved to the nearby Church of the Holy Family, located 400 meters (1,300 feet) away, which has also been bombed now.
Israel said it was looking into what happened Saturday at Holy Family Church.
But living under siege, Christians in Gaza bear witness to a spirit of solidarity that has united religions in their struggle for survival and their dream of freedom.
“We are all Palestinians. We live in the same city, with the same suffering,” Ayyad said.
“We are all under siege and we are all the same. »