The Latin Patriarchate which oversees the Catholic Churches in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus, which includes Holy Family Church in Gaza City, issued the following statement today, after the Israeli Army shot with a sniper and murdered two women within the parish church compound.
“Around noon today, December 16th, 2023, a sniper of the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families have taken refuge since the start of the war. Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister’s Convent. One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others inside the church compound. No warning was given, no notification was provided. They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there are no belligerents.”
“Earlier in the morning, a rocket fired from an IDF tank targeted the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Theresa (Missionaries of Charity). The Convent is home to over 54 disabled persons and is part of the church compound, which was signaled as a place of worship since the beginning of the war. The building’s generator and the fuel resources were destroyed. The house was damaged by the resulting explosion and massive fire. Two more rockets, fired by an IDF tank, targeted the same Convent and rendered the home uninhabitable. The 54 disabled persons are currently displaced and without access to the respirators that some of them need to survive.”
“In addition, as a result of the heavy bombing in the area, three people were wounded inside the church compound last night. Furthermore, solar panels and water tanks, which are indispensable for the survival of the community, were destroyed.”
“Together in prayer with the whole Christian community, we express our closeness and condolences to the families affected by this senseless tragedy. At the same time, we cannot but express that we are at a loss to comprehend how such an attack could be carried out, even more so as the whole Church prepares for Christmas.”
I stand by the words I posted a few weeks ago, when the conflict in Gaza began:
Civilians die in every conflict, yet in today’s modern world, there is a greater awareness that countries at war must do everything within their ability to avoid the targeting of civilians. Countries have a right to defend themselves, but do not have the right to kill civilians indiscriminately. Otherwise, we are no better than the Crusaders who fought against the Albigensians in Southern France in the thirteenth century, who massacred all and justified their actions saying, “God will know his own.”
Does a horrendous act of terrorism justify another act of terrorism? Can a wrong be made right with another wrong? It is impossible to remain indifferent to the suffering of millions of civilians whose lives are at stake? Do their lives have less value than the lives of others? Does their pain and suffering not cry up to heaven?
As war continues in Israel and Gaza, these are the thoughts that run through my mind. The end goal does not justify the means by which one achieves it. I pray for all the civilians caught up in the middle of this war – the kidnapped, the dead, the ones who have lost family members and their material possessions. I pray that those in authority will find a path of harmony and mutual respect. May they recognize the right for the other to exist, to live and to thrive.
Pictures taken from the Facebook Page of Holy Family, Gazo
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