Top Holy Land Clerics Visit Gaza After Deadly Church Strike

Two of the most senior Christian leaders in Jerusalem travelled to Gaza on Friday after Israeli fire killed three at the Palestinian territory's only Catholic church, provoking international condemnation.

The rare visit came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel "deeply regrets" the strike on the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and blamed a "stray" round.

Israel strictly controls access to the territory, where the civil defence agency on Friday reported that further Israeli strikes killed at least 25 Palestinians, including a family of five in their own home.

Local people used their bare hands to pick through the debris in the southern city of Khan Yunis in a desperate search for survivors.

"Entire families are buried under the rubble," Louai Abu Sahloul, a relative of the victims, told AFP, adding that the relentless wave of strikes was taking its toll.

"People are like walking dead, tired of hunger, pain and destruction everywhere in Gaza," he said.

The Catholic Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and his Greek Orthodox counterpart, Theophilos III, headed to Gaza and met local Christians following Thursday's strike.

They visited both the Holy Family Church and the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church in what the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem called "the shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land and their concern for the community of Gaza".

The Greek Orthodox Jerusalem Patriarchate called it a "powerful expression" of church unity and solidarity.

The clerics last week visited the occupied West Bank with diplomatic representatives from more than 20 countries after an attack on an ancient Byzantine-era church blamed on Israeli settlers.

Both churches said the Gaza visit had been facilitated with the help of aid agencies and also involved the delivery of food supplies and emergency medical equipment.

In Italy, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the delegation arrived with 500 tonnes of aid for local civilians.

Pope Leo XIV, the leader of the Catholic Church, said he was "deeply saddened" by the strike on the church, where hundreds of displaced people were sheltering, including children and those with special needs.

His predecessor, Pope Francis, kept in regular contact with parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli and repeatedly called for an end to the Gaza war, which has created a humanitarian crisis for the people living there.

Romanelli was one of 10 people injured in the strike and was seen with bandages on his leg.

The Vatican said the pope called Pizzaballa on Friday morning to ask about the situation in Gaza and the condition of Romanelli and the other wounded.

"He expressed his support and affection to the entire community gathered around the parish and those suffering from the violence, and reiterated his intention to do everything possible to stop the needless slaughter of innocents," a statement read.

The pontiff also spoke with Netanyahu and expressed concern about the "dramatic humanitarian situation", renewing his appeal for negotiations, a ceasefire and the end of the war, a separate statement added.

A spokesman at Netanyahu's office told AFP the conversation was "friendly" and the prime minister expressed his regret.

Both Italy and France called the strike "unacceptable" while US President Donald Trump called Netanyahu after having "not a positive reaction" on hearing about it, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

"It was a mistake by the Israelis to hit that Catholic church, that's what the prime minister relayed to the president," she told reporters.

The Jerusalem churches, which have jurisdiction for Catholics and members of the Greek Orthodox Church across Israel and the Palestinian territories, said they had ensured the medical evacuation of those injured.

One was in a critical condition and two others were seriously wounded, the Jerusalem Patriarchate said.

Out of the Gaza Strip's population of more than two million, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.

Israel's military maintains that it does not deliberately target churches and religious sites.

But the Jerusalem Patriarchate said there had been "repeated assaults on Christian holy sites in Gaza".

The war was sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's military retaliation has killed at least 58,667 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. The UN considers these figures to be reliable.