Israeli bombs hit the two church halls where refugees, including Palestinian children and babies, were sleeping.
Israel bombs the community of Santo Porfírio in the Gaza Strip
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247 This Thursday (19), the Israeli army bombed the Church of Saint Porfirio in the alZaytoun neighborhood of Gaza. It is the oldest shrine of the Orthodox Church in Gaza. At least eight people were killed in the attack and dozens were injured. According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, women and children were also killed in the attack.
The news agency cited local sources as saying that the bombing resulted in the total collapse of the church’s trustees’ building, which housed several Palestinian families, both Christians and Muslims, who had sought refuge in the church amid ongoing Israeli bombings had.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed “the strongest condemnation of the Israeli airstrike.” [ao] their church complex in Gaza City” and described the attack on churches and the shelters they run as “a war crime that cannot be ignored”.
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The Palestinian Foreign Ministry blamed “occupation fighter jets” for the blast and said Israeli planes bombed the church in the Zaytoun district of Gaza City. A woman and a girl died and “dozens of people” were injured, the ministry said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
An unknown number of people are still under the rubble of the meeting room, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Jordan said on Facebook, citing one of the parishioners. “There is not yet sufficiently accurate information, but it is expected that there will be a large number of martyrs,” the archdiocese added.
“Archbishop Alexios has apparently been found and is alive, but we do not know if he is injured,” the Orthodox Order of St. George said in a statement, adding that they “have no information on the condition of the others.” . 500 people accommodated in church and monastery.”
According to the order, the bombs hit the two halls of the church where refugees, including children and babies, were sleeping. Survivors are currently searching through the rubble in search of more victims.
Saint Porfirio is the oldest active church in Gaza. Originally built in the 5th century in honor of the saint of the same name, the current structure was built in the mid11th century during the Crusades and renovated in 1800. It is located in the southern part of Gaza City.
Conflicting reports from Gaza said up to 800 Palestinians sought shelter in church grounds from the explosion. The facility was just 250 meters from AlAhli Arab Hospital, where Palestinians said an explosion killed and injured hundreds of people on Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, Israel insisted that the hospital complex was hit by a rocket fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group. (*With information from RT)