Israel bombs Gaza’s only Catholic church sheltering elderly and children

Описание: Israeli forces have bombed Gaza’s only Catholic church, killing three people and wounding at least ten others, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, as the military continues its assault across the besieged enclave.
At least one person is in critical condition as a result of Thursday’s strike on the Church of the Latin Monastery in Gaza City – known as the Holy Family Church, the Patriarchate said in a statement. The church’s priest was also lightly wounded, it added.
Among those killed were the parish’s 60-year-old janitor and an 84-year-old woman who was receiving psychosocial support inside a Caritas tent in the church compound, according to the Catholic charity Caritas Jerusalem.
Footage of the Holy Family Church attack published by a Palestinian activist and verified by Al Jazeera shows Father Gabriel Romanelli, the church’s pastor, following the Israeli attack. The video shows the priest with his right leg bandaged but otherwise in good condition.
Pope Leo, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack” on the Gaza church, according to a telegram signed on his behalf by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state.
Pope Leo “assures the parish priest, Father Gabriele Romanelli, and the whole parish community of his spiritual closeness”, the telegram said.
The pontiff renewed his “call for an immediate ceasefire, and he expresses his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region”.
His predecessor, the late Pope Francis, had held nightly calls with the church’s parishioners in a show of solidarity with them. The last call took place the day before he died in April.

Al Jazeera's Ibrahim al-Khalili reports from the scene in Gaza City.
Father Bashar Fawadleh is a Palestinian Christian. He is a priest at Christ the Redeemer church in Taybeh in the occupied West Bank, part of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
He says it's painful to watch a church being targeted in this way.

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