Rome Newsroom, Dec 18, 2023 / 10:35 am (CNA).
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has denied culpability over the deaths of two Christian Palestinian women who were reportedly killed at the Holy Family Parish complex in Gaza on Saturday morning.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said on Saturday morning that “around noon” on Dec. 16, a sniper of the IDF “murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families has taken refuge since the start of the war.” Several others were also shot, the statement said.
“No warning was given, no notification was provided,” the patriarchate said. “They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.”
In an emailed statement to CNA, the IDF said that it had received the letter “describing a tragic incident that took place in the Holy Family Parish.”
On Saturday, “representatives of the church contacted the IDF regarding explosions that were heard near the church,” the IDF said.
“During the dialogue between the IDF and representatives of the community, no reports of a hit on the church, nor civilians being injured or killed, were raised.”
“A review of the IDF’s operational findings support this,” the statement said.
The IDF did not respond to a follow-up query asking explicitly if the army was refuting or challenging the reports that an IDF sniper killed two women at the parish.
The IDF’s statement comes after Pope Francis issued a sharp condemnation of the alleged attack following his Sunday Angelus on Dec. 17.
“I continue to receive very serious and painful news from Gaza. Unarmed civilians are subjected to bombings and shootings,” the Holy Father said.
“And this even happened inside the parish complex of the Holy Family, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, sick and disabled people, nuns,” he said.
“Yes, it’s war, it’s terrorism,” the pope said.
In the aftermath of Saturday’s reported attack, other Catholic leaders weighed in, including Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, who said in a Saturday statement that the bishops were calling “for an immediate cessation of all hostilities, the release of hostages, and for earnest negotiations towards a peaceful resolution of this conflict.”
“We resolutely join our voices with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, reminding all parties in this conflict that war is never the answer but always a defeat,” Broglio, also the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in the statement. “We plead, ‘peace, please peace!’”
Also speaking out was Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster and the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, who took to social media to express his “horror” at the events.
“I am heartbroken at the information provided by Cardinal [Pierbattista] Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, of killings in the church compound of the Catholic Parish of the Holy Family in Gaza City,” the cardinal said in a statement.
“I have immediately sent a message to His Eminence expressing my horror at these events and assuring him of the prayers of Catholics in England and Wales,” he said.
The patriarchate’s statement “gives a picture of seemingly deliberate and callous killing by IDF soldiers of innocent civilians: an elderly woman and her daughter in the grounds of a church,” he said.
“This killing has to stop. It can never be justified.”
In an interview with the British outlet Sky News on Monday, Nichols said he did not believe the denial from the IDF, calling it “hard to believe.”
“[T]he people in Gaza and the cardinal archbishop of Jerusalem, they’re not given to tell lies,” he said.
While stopping short of joining the pope’s characterization of the attack as ”terrorism,” the cardinal said: “It’s certainly a coldblooded killing, that’s the description that is given.”
Senior adviser to the Israeli PM @MarkRegev rejects the ‘terrible’ and ‘unfounded’ accusations that the IDF specifically targeted civilians, after two women were allegedly killed by an Israeli sniper in the Holy Family Church complex in Gaza City.
More 🔗 https://t.co/lqMrMwIX9B pic.twitter.com/QkZ1LxZohk
— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 18, 2023
Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, disputed the cardinal’s remarks during a live interview on Sky News on Monday, saying: “I would reject the categorization of the words he used: ‘coldblooded killing.’ That would indicate a deliberate targeting of civilians; that’s something we don’t do.”
“We don’t shoot people who are going to church, that just doesn’t happen. That’s not the way the IDF operates,” he added.
“To say that Israel is deliberately targeting Christian worshippers, that’s a terrible accusation that is unfounded.”
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How would they know WHO shot those people? The Jews famously respect civilians when possible and would have no reason to target people INSIDE a church, unless said church was harboring Hamas Terrorists. Secondly, snipers shoot from very far distances away, and keep well hidden in order to stay alive themselves. It seems highly unlikely anyone got a look at who did the shooting at all. So on the basis of what FACT do the people in Gaza claim it was the IDF who shot these people?? Sound like yet more Gazan propaganda. The Pope took the wrong side of the covid problem by allowing churches to be shuttered with his cooperation. Maybe he should stick to theology and leave politics and fighting wars to the parties involves. Especially since NEITHER party in this altercation is even Christian??? Too many stories are being reported as fact in recent years before all the FACTS are actually in.
Why would Pope Francis or anyone just automatically blame the IDF ?
Hello Benjamin.
Most CEO’s go with the information their informants provide them with. They don’t have time to research every single thing on their own. Especially in a global institution like the Church.
Unfortunately, the Pope’s informants in the Holy Land keep getting it wrong. I wish Pope Francis used the internet and he could access Israel’s news coverage to get some background and balance.
The Patriarchate’s name is Pizzaballa, and he reportedly claimed that IDF’s sniper killed the women. What evidence formed his belief is unclear.
Another question: Were the women in proximity to the Holy Family Church or were they were killed somewhere in the PARISH. The reports I’ve read say the women were killed within the Holy Family Parish. Typically, in the U.S. a church belongs to a parish, but a parish may consist of large swathes of land.
Wikipedia: “Pizzaballa was a signatory on the “Statement on the Escalating Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza” which condemned attacks on civilians, called for de-escalation, and asked the Israeli government to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. The statement was criticized by Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen as “inconceivable”.[17]
On 16 October 2023, Pizzaballa stated the “barbarism of Hamas [is] unacceptable and incomprehensible”,[3] and offered himself as a hostage in exchange for captive Israeli children held in Gaza.[4]”
Further reporting is that the women were killed within the church ‘compound.’
The Jerusalem Post had more information about this.