Israeli strike hits Gaza church, killing 3 and wounding priest who was close to Pope Francis
Deir al-Balah, Jul 17 (AP): An Israeli shell slammed into the compound of the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing three people and wounding 10 others, including the parish priest, according to church officials. The late Pope Francis, who died in April, had regularly spoken to the priest about the situation in the war-ravaged territory.
The shelling of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza also damaged the church compound, where hundreds of Palestinians have been sheltering from the 21-month Israel-Hamas war. Israel issued a rare apology and said it was investigating.
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire in response to the attack.
In a telegram of condolences for the victims, Leo expressed “his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region.” The pope said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack," and expressed his closeness to the wounded priest, Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, and the entire parish.
Hundreds of people sheltered at the church
The church compound was sheltering both Christians and Muslims, including a number of children with disabilities, according to Fadel Naem, acting director of Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the casualties.
The Catholic charity Caritas Jerusalem said the parish's 60-year-old janitor and an 84-year-old woman receiving psychosocial support inside a Caritas tent in the church compound were killed in the attack. Parish priest Romanelli was lightly wounded.
“We were struck in the church while all the people there were elders, innocent people and children,” said Shady Abu Dawood, whose mother was wounded by shrapnel to her head. “We love peace and call for it, and this is a brutal, unjustified action by the Israeli occupation.”
The Israeli military said it was investigating. It said it “makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian structures, including religious sites, and regrets any damage caused to them.”
In a rare move, the Israeli Foreign Ministry posted an apology on social media. “Israel expresses deep sorrow over the damage to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and over any civilian casualty,” it said.
Israel has repeatedly struck schools, shelters, hospitals and other civilian buildings, accusing Hamas group of sheltering inside and blaming them for civilian deaths. Palestinians say nowhere has felt safe since Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni blamed Israel for the strike on the church. “The attacks on the civilian population that Israel has been demonstrating for months are unacceptable,” she said.
Church compounds have been struck before
The church is just a stone's throw from Al-Ahli Hospital, Naem said, noting that the area around both the church and the hospital has been repeatedly struck for over a week.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which also has a church in Gaza that previously sustained damage from Israeli strikes, said the Holy Family Church was sheltering 600 displaced people, including many children, and 54 people with disabilities. It said the building suffered significant damage.
Targeting a holy site “is a blatant affront to human dignity and a grave violation of the sanctity of life and the inviolability of religious sites, which are meant to serve as safe havens during times of war,” the Church said in a statement.
Separately, another person was killed and 17 wounded Thursday in a strike against two schools sheltering displaced people in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al-Awda Hospital. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike.
The Gaza Health Ministry said that over the past 24 hours, local hospitals received the bodies of 94 people killed in Israeli strikes and another 367 wounded.
Pope Francis spoke almost daily with Gaza church
In the last 18 months of his life, Francis would often call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.
Francis had repeatedly criticized Israel's wartime conduct, and last year suggested that allegations of genocide in Gaza — which Israel has rejected as a “blood libel” — should be investigated. The late pope also met with the families of Israeli hostages and called for their release.
Only 1,000 Christians live in Gaza, an overwhelmingly Muslim territory, according to the US State Department's international religious freedom report for 2024. Most are Greek Orthodox.
The Holy Land's Christian population has dwindled in recent decades as many have emigrated to escape war and conflict or to seek better opportunities abroad. Local Christian leaders have recently denounced attacks by Israeli settlers and Jewish extremists.
Ceasefire talks continue
There has been little visible progress in months of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas aimed at a new ceasefire and hostage release agreement, after Israel ended an earlier truce in March.
According to an Israeli official familiar with the details, Israel is showing “flexibility” on some of the issues that have challenged negotiators, including Israel's presence in some of the security corridors the military has carved into the territory.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing ongoing negotiations, said Israel has shown some willingness to compromise on the Morag Corridor, which cuts across southern Gaza. However, other issues remain, including the list of Palestinian prisoners to be freed by Israel and commitments to end the war.
The official says there are signs of optimism but there won't be a deal immediately.
Hamas-led group killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251 people, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Fifty hostages are still being held, less than half of them believed to be alive
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 58,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but is led by medical professionals. The United Nations and other international organisations consider its figures to be the most reliable count of war casualties.
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Uncontrolled digging could erase Dharmasthala mass burial evidence: Soil scientist warns SIT
Bengaluru: A soil scientist, who has studied tropical lateritic soils, has released a note in anonymity, warning the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing alleged mass burials in Dharmasthala (1994–2014) that improper excavation could permanently destroy critical forensic evidence.
The scientist cautioned that in the coastal, high-rainfall environment of Dharmasthala, bones from older graves are often not visually present due to the region’s acidic laterite soil, which accelerates decomposition. “In these conditions, the visual absence of bones does not mean there was no burial,” the expert stressed. “Chemical and microscopic soil analysis may be the only way to detect older graves.”
According to the soil scientist, Dharmasthala’s lateritic soil has a pH of 4.5–6, is porous and rich in iron and aluminium oxides, and is subject to over 3,500 mm of annual rainfall. These factors together cause rapid bone mineral dissolution and collagen breakdown. “In as little as 15–20 years, complete skeletons can be reduced to just teeth, enamel shards, or micro-residues,” the scientist said.
Drawing on comparisons with Rwanda, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Srebrenica, the scientist estimated that:
- Graves less than 15 years old have a reasonable chance of yielding skeletons.
- Graves 15–20 years old may yield only partial skeletons and teeth.
- Burials older than 20 years often retain only chemical signatures and microscopic fragments.
“In Dharmasthala’s soil, the probability of finding a full skeleton after two decades is near zero,” the expert said.
‘JCBs will destroy what’s left’
The soil scientist was particularly critical of the use of heavy machinery in the investigation. “Uncontrolled digging with JCBs can obliterate brittle bone fragments, erase burial stratigraphy, and mix burial soil with surrounding soil, diluting chemical signals,” he warned. “It’s equivalent to destroying the crime scene.”
The scientist emphasised that disturbed lateritic soil can quickly resemble undisturbed ground, making it almost impossible to detect graves later.
GPR as a map, not a microscope
The expert also noted that Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) could play a limited role in the investigation. “GPR can help locate soil disturbances, but in wet, iron-rich lateritic soils, it cannot ‘see bones.’ For burials decades old, chemical analysis of soil is far more reliable,” he said.
Call for controlled forensic exhumation
The soil scientist urged the SIT to stop all mechanical digging and adopt a forensic protocol:
- Use GPR or other non-invasive methods to locate anomalies.
- Excavate in small, measured layers under forensic supervision.
- Collect soil samples for chemical and microscopic analysis.
- Sieve soil to recover micro bone fragments and teeth.
“Only a controlled, scientific approach will preserve what little evidence may remain in this environment,” the scientist said. “If these traces are destroyed, the truth about the alleged burials may never be proven.”
The SIT is investigating allegations of mass burials linked to the disappearance of individuals between 1994 and 2014 in Dharmasthala. No official response to the scientist’s concerns has been issued.
