Gaza pastor recalls ‘terrible’ church attack; Parolin decries ‘unbearable’ war

Father Gabriel Romanelli, lightly injured in the leg during the Israeli military strike on the Holy Family Parish compound in the Gaza Strip July 17 told L’Osservatore Romano that what happened in the parish was “terrible” and that “the situation continues to be very serious.” He asked the universal church community for prayers: “let’s try to convince the whole world to end this war,” he said.

In a statement issued on July 17, the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, said, “An initial inquiry into reports regarding injured individuals in the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, suggests that fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly.” It added that the cause of the incident “is under review.”

The shrapnel that hit the church damaged part of the roof, barely missing the iconic cross.

“That cross you see is nearly two meters tall, so it’s large, and the shrapnel, not only the shrapnel, but also the rocks fell on two elderly women who were under the church in a tent, and they died,” Father Romaneli explained.

“The metal fragments injured many others. There were fifteen wounded, three of whom have died. The doorman, Saad, died, along with the two elderly women,” parish pastor explained to the Vatican flagship newspaper and its journalist Roberto Cetera.

The parishioners confirmed dead by the Latin Patriarchate were Saad Salameh, 60, Fumayya Ayyad, 84, and Najwa Abu Daoud, a woman in her 70s. Salameh was the parish’s janitor and was in the yard at the time of explosions, said a July 17 press release from Caritas Internationalis, the Catholic Church’s international humanitarian arm. Ayyad was sitting inside a Caritas psychological support tent when the blast sent shrapnel to the area and fatally injured her. Abu Daoud was sitting in the same tent as Ayyad, the patriarchate’s CEO Sami El-Yousef confirmed July 17 to OSV News.