Online Reporter
Online Reporter
ISRAEL has been widely criticised for bombing Gaza’s Catholic church, killing three people and wounding 10 others, including the priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli.
The attack on the Holy Family Church on Thursday came as Israel intensified bombings in the besieged enclave, killing over 30 people.
According to Caritas Jerusalem, the Catholic church’s charity organisation, two of those killed were the 60-year-old parish caretaker and a woman, 84, who was receiving psychosocial support in the church compound.
In a statement this Friday, Palestinian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Dr Tamer Almassri said they are “outraged and deeply saddened by the latest attack on the Latin Church in Gaza City”.
“This heinous act is part of a systematic policy of desecration and genocide committed by the occupation against all forms of human life in the Gaza Strip.
“The bombing of the Latin Church is a stark indication of the occupying power’s complete disregard for international law, religious sanctity, and fundamental human values,” he said.
Ambassador Almassri added that the latest attack on the Latin Church is not an isolated incident but part of a larger pattern of violence and aggression against Palestinians, including Christians.
In 2023, Israel bombed the historic Church of Saint Porphyrius, a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City, killing at least 18 Palestinian civilians. Further, Israel has destroyed over 85 percent of mosques and many churches in Gaza and continues to provoke violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
“The State of Palestine also condemns the continued settler violence in the Christian town of Taybeh, east of Ramallah, where St George Church and the town’s Christian cemetery have been stormed by settlers.
“The settlers have engaged in organised campaigns of intimidation against local residents, further exacerbating the already dire situation faced by Palestinian Christians,” he said.
Ambassador Almassri urges Patriarchs, Eminences and Heads of Churches around the world to publicly and unequivocally condemn these attacks, hold the “occupying power fully responsible” for the repeated targeting of churches and believers, and to fulfill their moral and spiritual obligation toward Christian communities in Palestine.
“Silence is no longer acceptable, and prayers alone are not enough unless accompanied by bold and principled action to stop the deliberate campaign to erase the deep-rooted Christian presence in the Holy Land.
“The State of Palestine also appeals to the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities and take an effective stance to halt the Israeli aggression on Gaza immediately. The international community must ensure the prompt entry of sufficient and immediate aid to the Gaza Strip, which is suffering from an unprecedented humanitarian disaster caused and exacerbated by the Israeli aggression,” he said.
Despite steadfastly supporting Israel’s war on Gaza and the annexation of the enclave, a White House spokesperson told reporters on Thursday that US President Donald Trump had called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing disappointment over the bombing of the Latin Church.
Since October 2023, Israel has killed over 58 000 Palestinians in Gaza, wounding over 100 000, with 11 000 unaccounted for and presumed dead.
Peter Tanyanyiwa