Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed regret over the damage to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City—the only Catholic church in the Strip—which was hit by stray Israeli ammunition on Thursday. The strike, which killed three people and injured ten, including the parish priest, also caused structural damage to the church compound, which has sheltered hundreds of displaced civilians.
A statement from the prime minister’s office said that “every innocent life lost is a tragedy,” after it was reported that three people were killed by the accidental strike.
We share the grief of the families and the faithful.
Netanyahu also spoke on the phone to Pope Leo XIV. When asked about the conversation, the pontiff said they had “insisted on the need to protect the holy places of all religions” and to work together to that end.
During his Angelus prayer the day of the incident, the pope expressed “deep sorrow for the Israeli army’s attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City” and called for “an immediate end to the barbarity of the war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.”
Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó said Budapest “welcomed” the talk between the Vatican and Israel, adding that his administration was supporting the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem with €25,000.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denounced the raid that hit the church and said, “No military action can justify such behavior.”
Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the Israeli Defense Forces were “examining the incident, the circumstances of which are still unclear.”
Israel never targets churches or religious sites and regrets any harm to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians.
The results of this investigation by the Netanyahu administration will be published “transparently,” the ministry stated.
