After Deadly Attack on Catholic Parish in Gaza, Pope Leo XIV Urges Immediate Ceasefire

According to humanitarian aid organization Caritas Jerusalem, the two victims were outside the parish building — converted into a shelter for more than 500 people since the war began in October 2023 — at the time of the projectile strike.

Saad Salameh, 60, the parish caretaker, was in the courtyard and Fumayya Ayyad, 84, was sitting inside a Caritas psychosocial support tent when the explosion sent shrapnel flying and caused debris to fall in the area.

Both were rushed to Al-Mamadani Hospital, just over half a mile from the church, but died shortly afterward due to a "severe shortage of medical resources and blood units in Gaza," the statement said.

Caritas Jerusalem denounced these deaths, saying they represent “a painful reminder of the impossible conditions faced by civilians and medical personnel under siege.”

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The humanitarian aid organization's teams in Gaza are “in a state of shock and mourning,” having witnessed “another senseless loss of innocent lives,” the group said.

In response to the tragedy, Caritas Jerusalem issued a new appeal to the international community: “Once again, we urgently call for swift action to protect civilians, places of worship, and humanitarian spaces, and to ensure that people in Gaza have access to the most basic right: the opportunity to survive.”

“May Saad and Fumayya rest in peace. We carry their memory with us,” the message concludes.

For his part, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, expressed doubt that the attack was not deliberate.

“They say it was a mistake by an Israeli tank, but we don't know; it hit the church … directly,” Pizzaballa told Vatican News. In addition to the two deaths, the explosion caused five injuries, including to the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, who suffered a minor leg injury.

Pizzaballa acknowledged that it is still too early to fully assess the consequences of the attack, but he insisted on the need to clarify what happened and protect the local community.

“Now is too early to talk about all this; we need to understand what happened, what must be done, above all, to protect our people, naturally trying to ensure that these things don't happen again, and then we will see how to continue,” he said.

The patriarch reaffirmed the Catholic Church's closeness and commitment to the Christians of the Gaza Strip: "We always try to reach Gaza in every possible way, directly and indirectly."

Following the attack, Israeli Foreign Minister Oren Marmorstein in a message posted on the social media platform X expressed the Israeli government's "deep sorrow for the damage to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and for any civilian casualties."

The Israeli foreign minister indicated that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are examining the incident, the details of which "are still unclear."

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"The results of the investigation will be published with complete transparency," he said.

In his statement, the minister stressed that "Israel never targets churches or religious sites" and regretted "any damage to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians."

This article was originally published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish language news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

As a journalist, Victoria Cardiel has specialized in social and religious news. Since 2013, she has covered the Vatican for various media outlets, including Europa Press and Alfa and Omega, the weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Madrid.