
Three killed and several injured in Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church
The Catholic charity Caritas Jerusalem said the parish's 60-year-old caretaker and an 84-year-old woman receiving psycho-social support inside a Caritas tent in the church compound were among those killed in the attack.
The Israeli military said it is aware of the incident and is investigating.
Palestinian Christians (Adel Hana/AP)
Parish priest Fr Gabriel Romanelli, who was close to the late Pope Francis, was also injured.
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 dead and people injured.
The Israeli military said it 'makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian structures, including religious sites, and regrets any damage caused to them'.
Israel accuses Hamas militants of operating from civilians areas.
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,' the ministry said.
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. No military action can justify such an attitude,' she said.
The church is just a stone's throw from Al-Ahli Hospital, Mr 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 injured 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.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Evictions and expulsions of Muslims to Bangladesh precede Indian state polls
GOALPARA, India, July 28 (Reuters) - Beneath a sea of blue tarpaulin in a corner of northeastern India near Bangladesh, hundreds of Muslim men, women and babies take shelter after being evicted from their homes, in the latest crackdown in Assam ahead of state elections. They are among thousands of families whose houses have been bulldozed in the past few weeks by authorities - the most intense such action in decades - who accuse them of illegally staying on government land. The demolitions in Assam, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party will seek reelection early next year, have coincided with a national clampdown on Bengali-speaking Muslims branded "illegal infiltrators" from Bangladesh, since the August 2024 ouster of a pro-India premier in Dhaka. "The government repeatedly harasses us," said Aran Ali, 53, speaking outside a patch of bare earth in Assam's Goalpara district that has become the makeshift home for his family of three. "We are accused of being encroachers and foreigners," said Ali, who was born in Assam, as the scorching July sun beat down on the settlement. Assam accounts for 262 km of India's 4097 km-long border with Bangladesh and has long grappled with anti-immigrant sentiments rooted in fears that Bengali migrants — both Hindus and Muslims — from the neighbouring country would overwhelm the local culture and economy. The latest clamp-down, under Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, has been exclusively aimed at Muslims and led to protests that killed a teenager days ago. Assam's firebrand Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is among a slew of ambitious BJP leaders accused of fomenting religious discord to stir populist sentiments ahead of polls across the country, says "Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh" threaten India's identity. "We are fearlessly resisting the ongoing, unchecked Muslim infiltration from across the border, which has already caused an alarming demographic shift," he recently said on X. "In several districts, Hindus are now on the verge of becoming a minority in their own land." He told reporters last week that migrant Muslims make up 30% of Assam's 31 million population as of the 2011 census. "In a few years from now, Assam's minority population will be close to 50%," he said. Sarma did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The BJP has long believed Hindu-majority India to be the natural homeland for all Hindus and implemented policies to counter the country's large Muslim population. In 2019 it amended India's citizenship law to effectively naturalise undocumented non-Muslim migrants from neighbouring countries. Since he became chief minister in May 2021, Sarma's government has evicted 50,000 people — mostly Bengali Muslims — from 160 square kilometres of land, with more planned. In just the past month alone, about 3,400 Bengali Muslim homes have been bulldozed in five eviction drives across Assam, according to state data. The previous government evicted some 4,700 families in the five years to early 2021. "Bengali-speaking Muslims, regardless of their legal status, have become vulnerable targets for right-wing groups in India," said Praveen Donthi, senior analyst at International Crisis Group. Indian opposition leaders have accused Sarma of using the evictions and expulsions to polarise voters ahead of elections. "These measures are politically beneficial and profitable for the BJP," said Akhil Gogoi, an opposition lawmaker. The main opposition Congress party, whose crushing defeat in the 2016 Assam election gave the BJP its first government in the state, said it would rebuild the demolished houses and jail those who destroyed them if voted back to power. The surge in evictions follows a deadly attack in April on Hindu tourists in Kashmir blamed on "terrorists" from Muslim-majority Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies. BJP-ruled states have since rounded up thousands of Bengali Muslims, calling them suspected "illegal immigrants" and a potential security risk. Analysts say worsening ties between New Delhi and Dhaka following the ouster of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have intensified sentiments against Bengali-speaking Muslims, giving the BJP a political weapon to use for votes. Bengali is the main language of Muslim-majority Bangladesh and is also widely spoken in parts of India. States including Assam have also "pushed back" hundreds of Bengali Muslims into Bangladesh. Some were brought back because appeals challenging their non-Indian status were being heard in court, Reuters has reported. Assam officials say around 30,000 people have been declared foreigners by tribunals in the state. Such people are typically long-term residents with families and land, and activists say many of them are often wrongly classified as foreigners and are too poor to challenge tribunal judgements. New Delhi said in 2016 that around 20 million illegal Bangladeshi migrants were living in India. "The Indian government is putting thousands of vulnerable people at risk in apparent pursuit of unauthorised immigrants, but their actions reflect broader discriminatory policies against Muslims," said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. India's foreign ministry said in May that the country had a list of 2,369 individuals to be deported to Bangladesh. It urged Bangladesh to expedite the verification process. Bangladesh's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Since Hasina's removal and a rise in attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, Sarma has frequently shared details of foiled infiltration attempts, with pictures of those caught splashed on social media. "The ethnonationalism that had long animated Assam's politics seamlessly merged with the religious nationalism of the BJP,' said Donthi. "The focus then shifted from Bengali-speaking outsiders to Bengali-speaking Muslims."


Daily Record
7 hours ago
- Daily Record
Keir Starmer to raise Gaza starvation with Donald Trump during Turnberry summit
The Prime Minister and President will hold talks at the Ayrshire gold course. Keir Starmer will raise the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and try to seal a US trade deal during a high-stakes summit with Donald Trump on Monday. The Prime Minister will also demand tough action against Vladimir Putin when he meets the US President at Turnberry. The Republican arrived at Prestwick airport on Friday to kickstart a five day trip that will combine golf and political meetings. He played his Turnberry course over the weekend and will travel to his other golf club at the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire on Monday as well. One of his final acts at Turnberry will be talks with Starmer on a range of international and domestic issues. Condemnation of the Israeli Government' s actions in Palestine are growing as people in Gaza starve. Starmer, who said he is 'horrified' by the crisis, wants Trump to revive ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas when they meet. He also hopes to get a trade deal between the US and UK, which is currently in draft form, over the line. The President and the Prime Minister will travel together for a private engagement in Aberdeen after their Turnberry meeting. Trump will open his third golf course on Tuesda y during his stay in Aberdeenshire, where he is also expected to meet First Minister John Swinney. Trump was seen teeing off at his Turnberry golf course over the weekend. A woman shouted 'We love you Trump' as the US president played golf. Wearing a white baseball camp branded USA, Trump waved to journalists as he arrived on the green at Trump Turnberry in Girvan, Ayrshire, driving a white golf buggy. A female well-wisher could be heard repeatedly shouting 'we love you Trump' and 'thank you'. Someone else shouted: 'Trump Trump Trump Trump '. The sound of cheering could be heard as Trump took a shot. Protesters carrying placards stood in the dunes at Trump Turnberry, urging the president: 'Don't trust Starmer '. Three people carried placards reading: 'President Trump don't trust Starmer'. The hand-painted sign also branded the Prime Minister an explicit term. A woman holding it wore a red baseball cap with fake hair which read Make America Great Again, and appeared to laugh as she watched Mr Trump. Another female supporter dressed in a floral anorak, held a US flag and wore a baseball cap reading Make England Great Again. She carried a smaller sign which also branded Sir Keir an explicit term. They were joined by a man dressed in black, who wore an Adidas baseball cap. A Trump supporter who travelled from Liverpool to Ayrshire in the hope of seeing the US President at his Turnberry golf course said he is 'chuffed' to have interacted with the President. Tom English, 37, who made the four-and-a-half hour journey with some other Trump supporters, explained: 'We rushed up here hoping to get a glimpse of him. And that's happened this morning when we've got to interact with him a little bit. 'We couldn't really hear him because he was trying to shout to us in this wind, in the Scottish wind on the coast. So it was kind of hard to hear what he said. 'But he blew a kiss to the girls. Gave us a little wave. Trump junior gave us a little wave. And that's what it was about. 'We just wanted to see him in the flesh, and to get that interaction was an added bonus.' When asked what he and the other supporters had said to the president, English recounted: 'Just that we love him, basically. The UK loves Trump. Don't believe the mainstream media.'


South Wales Guardian
11 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
Death toll rises after attack on church in east Congo church
The incident took place in the place of worship in Komanda, Ituri province. Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator, said: 'The bodies of the victims are still at the scene of the tragedy, and volunteers are preparing how to bury them in a mass grave that we are preparing in a compound of the Catholic church.' At least five other people were killed in an earlier attack on the nearby village of Machongani, where a search is ongoing. 'They took several people into the bush; we do not know their destination or their number,' Lossa Dhekana, a civil society leader in Ituri, told reporters. Both attacks are believed to have been carried out by members of the Allied Democratic Force (ADF) armed with guns and machetes. The military has confirmed at least 10 fatalities, while local media reports put the total death toll at more than 40. Mr Duranthabo said attackers stormed the church in Komanda town at around 1am. Several houses and shops were also burnt. Lt Jules Ngongo, a Congolese army spokesperson in Ituri province, confirmed 10 were killed in the church attack. Video footage from the scene shared online appeared to show burning structures and bodies on the floor of the church. Those who were able to identify some of the victims wailed while others stood in shock. A UN-backed radio station said 43 people were killed, citing security sources. It said the attackers came from a stronghold around seven miles from the centre of Komanda and fled before security forces could arrive. Mr Duranthabo condemned the attack 'in a town where all the security officials are present'. He added: 'We demand military intervention as soon as possible, since we are told the enemy is still near our town.' Eastern Congo has suffered deadly attacks in recent years by armed groups, including the ADF and Rwanda-backed rebels. The ADF, which has ties to the so-called Islamic State, operates in the borderland between Uganda and Congo and often targets civilians. The group killed dozens of people in Ituri earlier this month in what a United Nations spokesperson described as a bloodbath. The ADF was formed by disparate small groups in Uganda in the late 1990s following alleged discontent with President Yoweri Museveni. In 2002, following military assaults by Ugandan forces, the group moved its activities to neighbouring Congo and has since been responsible for the killings of thousands of civilians. In 2019, it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), which has long struggled against the rebel group, has been facing attacks since the renewed hostilities between the Rwanda-backed M23.