An Israeli sniper killed two Catholic parishioners and wounded seven other people Saturday in Gaza's Holy Family parish, according to the Catholic Church. “They were shot in cold blood inside the parish premises, where there are no belligerents,” denounced the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in a statement. “No warning was given,” he added.
Pope Francis echoed the case this Sunday after praying the Angelus. “Defenseless civilians are being bombed and shot. And this has happened even within the parish compound of the Holy Family, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, the sick and disabled, nuns,” said the pontiff, after mentioning the names of the two dead women.
When asked by La Vanguardia, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged having acted on Saturday against “terrorists” in the area of the only Catholic parish in Gaza. “An initial review suggests that IDF troops, who were operating against Hamas terrorists in the area, operated against a threat they identified in the church area. “The IDF is conducting a thorough review of the incident,” its press service responded. However, and despite the Pope's explicit denunciation, they added that "during the dialogue between the IDF and community representatives, no reports emerged of an attack on the church, nor of civilians being injured or killed."
The two women, Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar Kamal, were two active parishioners who had collaborated for years with the parish, where they were sheltered along with 600 other people, faithful of the Sagrada Familia and the other two Christian churches in the parish. strip, one evangelical and one Orthodox – already uninhabitable –, located in Gaza City. At the beginning of the war, the Orthodox church was bombed and 16 refugees died in their sleep.
One of the seven injured is another son of Nahida, who was shot when he tried to help his mother and sister, along with other people, who were also shot by the army.
The presence of the sniper was not an isolated event. The parish, made up of various buildings, had been harassed by the army for days and the soldiers even entered the premises. The Patriarchate also reported that on the same Saturday an Israeli tank launched three projectiles against the parish, hitting the convent, where there are 54 disabled people who "are currently displaced and without access to the respirators that some of them need to survive."
As a result of the Israeli attack, the convent residence was left uninhabitable and the power generator and water tank were destroyed, so the 600 refugees now face a critical situation.
Only three religious continue to live in the parish, an Egyptian priest and two Peruvian twin nuns from the order of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, who refused to be evacuated by their government to stay to help the displaced Palestinian faithful, many of whom of whom have lost their homes. Before the war, there were 1,200 Christians in Gaza, of whom 120 were Catholic.
From London, British Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, of Palestinian descent, has been denouncing for days the siege by Israeli troops of the Holy Family parish, where members of her family are taking refuge. "There are snipers in every window pointing towards the church. They shoot anyone who leaves the buildings to use, for example, the bathrooms. There is still no food or water," Moran tweeted this Sunday, adding that he does not know if his relatives "are going to survive until Christmas.
The response provided this Sunday by the Israeli armed forces to La Vanguardia regarding this incident concludes as follows: “The IDF only attacks terrorists and terrorist infrastructure and not civilians, regardless of their religion. “The IDF takes extensive measures to prevent harm to uninvolved civilians.”
