The church was watched over closely by the late Pope Francis, who spoke daily with its parish priest and once gifted his popemobile to the children there.
In a rare and risky visit to Gaza — largely sealed off from foreign officials — Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, led a delegation into the territory on Friday to show their support.
Video footage captured their arrival at the church, greeted by cheers and ringing bells.
“On behalf of all the Christians of our land, all the churches all over the world are united with us in this moment,” said Pizzaballa, who also led Sunday morning mass at the church.
President Donald Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the strike.
White House spokesperson Tammy Bruce said it was an understatement to say Trump was not happy with Netanyahu during the call, adding that the U.S. had asked Israel to investigate the strike and “ensure that all civilians, including Christian civilians, remain safe.”
“Everyone is appalled,” she said.
On Friday, staunch Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced a bill to strip $500 million in U.S. military funding to Israel, a measure that was overwhelmingly rejected but marked a rare rebuke.
Netanyahu said that Israel “deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church” and called Pope Leo on Friday night.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was reviewing the incident. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the results of the investigation would be published.
Bruce called the prime minister’s response “an appropriate start” and reiterated Israel’s framing of the strike as an accident.
But admissions of regret have not satisfied the grieving Catholic community, which has amplified its calls for a ceasefire.
The Jerusalem branch of the Vatican’s Caritas federation named two of the dead as Saad Salameh, 60, the church’s janitor, and Fumayya Ayyad, 84, who had been sitting inside a Caritas psychosocial support tent when the blast sent shrapnel and debris flying. The pope named the other as Najwa Ibrahim Latif Abu Daoud.
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called for peace and an “immediate ceasefire” following the strike, echoing Pope Leo and renewing calls made so often under Francis.
“With the Holy Father, the Catholic bishops of the United States are deeply saddened to learn about the deaths and injuries at Holy Family Church in Gaza caused by a military strike,” Broglio said in a statement. “May there be peace in Gaza.”
Pax Christi International, a Christian peace organization, condemned the strike, and called for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire.”
Yet while those calls may have intensified in the wake of the attack, there was little sign of one this weekend.
Since Pizzaballa visited the Holy Family Church on Friday, Israeli air strikes had killed more than 100 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities.
On Sunday, the Israeli military issued evacuation orders that suggested its ground offensive may be about to extend into new areas at the heart of the enclave, while the United Nations said that civilians were starving and in urgent need of aid.
Pizzaballa, closer to the carnage than most foreigners have managed since the current conflict began, once again called for peace.
“Churches all over the world, especially the church in the Holy Land, the Greek Orthodox, and all the churches, will never abandon and neglect you,” he said, addressing the church.
“We are working in the diplomatic world in order for a ceasefire, to stop this war, this tragedy,” he said.
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