Hamas says several dead and injured at Gaza church compound after Israel strike
A smoke plume erupts during Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern of Gaza Strip on October 19, 2023. — AFP pic
Friday, 20 Oct 2023 7:02 AM MYT
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES, Oct 20 — The Hamas-controlled interior ministry said several displaced people who had taken shelter at a church compound in the Gaza Strip have been killed and injured after an Israeli strike late Thursday.
The strike left a “large number of martyrs and injured” at the compound of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church, the ministry said.
Witnesses told AFP the strike appeared to have been aimed at a target close to the place of worship where many Gaza residents had taken refuge as the war raged in the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli army when contacted told AFP it was checking the reported strike.
Witnesses said the strike damaged the facade of the church and caused an adjacent building to collapse, adding that many injured people were evacuated to hospital.
Saint Porphyrius is the oldest church still in use in Gaza and is located in the city’s historic neighbourhood.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its “strongest condemnation” of the strike at its church compound.
“Targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children and women who have lost their homes due to Israeli airstrikes on residential areas over the past 13 days, constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored,” the Patriarchate said in a statement.
The church is not far from the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in the Gaza Strip where a strike killed at least 471 people on Tuesday according to Hamas authorities.
While Hamas has accused an Israeli air strike for the killings, the Israeli army has blamed a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket for causing the deaths.
Gaza has been hit by a relentless barrage of Israeli fire in retaliation for a Hamas militant attack on October 7, which Israel says killed at least 1,400 people, most of them civilians.
Israeli bombing since has killed at least 3,785 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry. — AFP
Friday, 20 Oct 2023 7:02 AM MYT
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES, Oct 20 — The Hamas-controlled interior ministry said several displaced people who had taken shelter at a church compound in the Gaza Strip have been killed and injured after an Israeli strike late Thursday.
The strike left a “large number of martyrs and injured” at the compound of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church, the ministry said.
Witnesses told AFP the strike appeared to have been aimed at a target close to the place of worship where many Gaza residents had taken refuge as the war raged in the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli army when contacted told AFP it was checking the reported strike.
Witnesses said the strike damaged the facade of the church and caused an adjacent building to collapse, adding that many injured people were evacuated to hospital.
Saint Porphyrius is the oldest church still in use in Gaza and is located in the city’s historic neighbourhood.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its “strongest condemnation” of the strike at its church compound.
“Targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children and women who have lost their homes due to Israeli airstrikes on residential areas over the past 13 days, constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored,” the Patriarchate said in a statement.
The church is not far from the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in the Gaza Strip where a strike killed at least 471 people on Tuesday according to Hamas authorities.
While Hamas has accused an Israeli air strike for the killings, the Israeli army has blamed a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket for causing the deaths.
Gaza has been hit by a relentless barrage of Israeli fire in retaliation for a Hamas militant attack on October 7, which Israel says killed at least 1,400 people, most of them civilians.
Israeli bombing since has killed at least 3,785 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry. — AFP
LIES!!
ReplyDeleteI am old enough to have spoken directly to Japanese people who experienced the horrific American bombing of Japanese cities and industrial targets from 1942 -1945.
ReplyDeleteDay and Night, Day after Day after Day, the B-29s nonstop relentlessly worked to break Japan's industrial capacity and will to resist.
In one night, the Yank bombing killed more than 100,000 people in Tokyo.
It was butchery, but an inevitable consequence of War.
Of you don't want that, don't start wars.
Wars have been and still are conflicts between nations. Hamas is only an insurrection unit, fighting an insurgency against an occupying force to repossess its own land
DeleteCalling the fight between Israel & Hamas war IS cruellest whitewashing of the Zionist massacre!
DeleteMfer, Gaza Strip is a forced enclosing concentration camp operated by the Israel.
& u call a wonton slaughtering of innocents, under the forced entrapment by the executors a WAR!
Black-hearted dickhead par excellent u r, mfer!