An Israeli sniper killed two Catholic parishioners and wounded seven others at the Holy Family Parish in Gaza on Saturday, 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 yesterday after the prayer of the angel. "Defenseless civilians are bombed and shot at. And this has even happened inside the parish complex of the Sagrada Família, 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 La Vanguardia asked them about this issue, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged that they had acted on Saturday against "terrorists" in the area of the only Catholic parish in Gaza. “An initial review suggests that IDF troops, operating against Hamas terrorists in the area, operated against a threat they identified in the area of the church. 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 wounded or dead civilians" .
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, like 600 other people, faithful to the Sagrada Família and the other two churches Christian churches in the 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.
The presence of the elite marksman was not an isolated event. The parish, which is made up of several buildings, had been attacked by the army for days and the soldiers even entered the premises. The patriarchate also denounced that on Saturday itself an Israeli tank launched three projectiles against the parish and hit the convent, where there are 54 disabled people who "are currently displaced and without access to the respirators that some need to survive".
As a result of the Israeli attack, the convent residence became uninhabitable and the energy generator and water tank were destroyed, so that 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 Mother of God of Matará, who refused to be evacuated by their Government to stay and help the displaced Palestinian faithful, many of whom have lost their homes. Before the war, there were 1,200 Christians in Gaza, of whom 120 were Catholic.
The response of the Israeli armed forces to La Vanguardia about the incident ends 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 non-involved civilians."
