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LAST UPDATE | 17 Jul
THREE PEOPLE HAVE been killed following an Israeli strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza.
The Holy Family Catholic parish and church is located in the northern part of Gaza City.
Over 600 people, both Christians and Muslims, are sheltered in the parish within its church and school.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed regret for the deaths, which he blamed on a “stray” round after a phone call with US President Donald Trump.
The attack happened this morning at around 10.20am local time.
Initially, two people were reported to have died but this has since risen to three.
Nine others, including the parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli, have been injured – Fr Romanelli is said to have sustained “light injuries”.
Two of these are in a serious condition, while one is in a critical condition.
Pope Leo XIV has called for an immediate ceasefire following the attack and in a telegram, expressed “deep sorrow for the loss of life and injuries caused by the attack”.
He also expressed “spiritual closeness” to the parish priest, Fr Romanelli, as well as to the entire parish community.
I am deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in #Gaza. I assure the parish community of my spiritual closeness. I commend the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God, and pray for…
— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) July 17, 2025
Pope Leo XIV also expressed his “profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation, and enduring peace in the region”.
“Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy,” Netanyahu said in a statement, while also promising an investigation into the strike.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had called Netanyahu after having “not a positive reaction” to news of the strike.
“It was a mistake by the Israelis to hit that Catholic church, that’s what the prime minister relayed to the president,” she said.
The attack on the church happened this morning and the building sustained severe damage.
Videos showed the wounded being treated in a tented area at Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Hospital, with Fr Romanelli with a bandage around his lower leg.
Some of the wounded arrived on stretchers, with one man wearing an oxygen mask.
El párroco argentino Gabriel Romanelli fue herido luego de que atacaran la iglesia Sagrada Familia en Gaza. El bombardeo dejó a dos muertos y cuatro heridos.
— Corta (@somoscorta) July 17, 2025
📹 Vía: @CatholicArena pic.twitter.com/aZe1ViGOEx
Mourners knelt next to two white body bags laid out on the floor.
“In the morning a tank shell targeted us and hit the church, and a number of civilians were killed and wounded,” said Shadi Abu Daoud, a displaced man whose 70-year-old mother was killed in the strike.
Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory today killed at least 20 people.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa is the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, making him the top Catholic official in the Middle East.
He said the strike “destroyed large parts of the complex”.
“Targeting a holy site currently sheltering approximately 600 displaced persons, the majority of whom are children and 54 with special needs, is a flagrant violation of human dignity and a blatant violation of the sanctity of life and the sanctity of religious sites, which are supposed to provide a safe haven in times of war,” he added.
Speaking earlier to Vatican News, Cardinal Pizzaballa said the IDF claimed that the strike by a tank was “by mistake”.
However, he added: “We are not sure about this, they hit the church directly.”
Cardinal Pizzaballa said the church compound had been a “sanctuary” where people hoped to escape the “horrors of the war”.
In a social media post, Israel claimed it “never targets churches or religious sites and regrets any harm to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians”.
The late Pope Francis had been in daily contact with the Holy Family Church since 9 October, 2023, two days after the bombings began in Gaza.
The late pontiff described the parish community as “very courageous” and he used his final public address to call for an end to the “deplorable humanitarian situation’ in Gaza.
Francis also described some Israeli actions in Gaza as “terrorism” in his memoir.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
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