Latest news with #CatholicChurchoftheHolyFamily
Middle East Eye
5 days ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Macron says Israel's war on Gaza is unjustifiable after Israeli attack on church
French President Emmanuel Macron said that Israel's war on Gaza was 'unjustifiable' and he 'strongly condemns" the Israeli airstrike on a church in Gaza, he said in a post on X on Thursday. 'Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all Christians who, like all Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the hostages, are living through hell'. He said he had told Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem that France is in 'solidarity with all Christians in Palestine, who, from Gaza to Taybeh, are now under threat'. 'Every day, dozens of Palestinian civilians are killed in Gaza: the continuation of this war is unjustifiable,' Macron went on to say. 'It is unjustifiable and shameful that humanitarian aid is not being delivered on a massive scale, in violation of all international principles of humanitarian action'. He also called for a ceasefire to be finalized, and civilians and hostages freed from the threat of permanent war. Earlier on Thursday, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot described the bombing of the Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza as "unacceptable". The church – along with all Catholic religious communities in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza - are under the historical protection of France, based on an agreement between the Ottoman Empire and France dating back to the early 20th century. Three people were killed in the attack, and 10 people were injured.
L'Orient-Le Jour
5 days ago
- Politics
- L'Orient-Le Jour
France condemns 'unacceptable' bombing of church under its 'historic protection'
France condemns the "unacceptable" bombing of the Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza, "placed under France's historic protection," which left two people dead, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot posted Thursday on X. "I expressed to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem the emotion and solidarity of our country. These attacks are intolerable; it is time for the carnage in Gaza to stop," the minister wrote. "France protects Catholic religious communities in Israel and Palestine. This role is the legacy of a long history that goes back to the capitulations signed by Francis I with Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1535," the Foreign Affairs Ministry recalled in a written response to a senator's question in 2014. Since the 1920s, France has no longer had a "legal role in protecting Eastern Catholic Christians. However, the agreements signed between France and the Ottoman Empire at Mytilene in 1901 and Constantinople in 1913, which granted France protection over Catholic religious communities in the Holy Land, have been recognized by the Israeli and Palestinian authorities and are thus still in effect," according to the Ministry. The Gaza Civil Defense and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem announced Thursday the death of two people in an Israeli airstrike on the only Catholic church in the Palestinian territory, which has been a refuge for this small community since the beginning of the war. Israel, at war with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023, said it "never targets" religious sites in the Gaza Strip and added that the circumstances in which the church was damaged were "under review."
