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JERUSALEM – Israeli forces killed two women seeking refuge in a church in the Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon, according to Catholic authorities.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, an ecclesiastical office for the region's Latin Catholics, in a statement identified the victims – a mother and a daughter – only by their first names and said they were “shot in cold blood.”
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sniper shot and killed the women in the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Gaza's Christian families have sought refuge during the war, the Patriarchate's statement said.
“Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot while walking to the sisters’ convent,” the patriarchate said, referring to a building in the parish complex. “One was killed while trying to carry the other to safety. Seven other people were shot and injured as they tried to protect others on church grounds. There was no warning, no notification. They were shot in cold blood on parish grounds where there are no warring parties.”
The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment and The Washington Post could not immediately verify the details of the Patriarchate's report.
Mobile phone and internet networks have been largely down across the Gaza Strip since Thursday evening, the latest in a series of near-total power outages across Palestinian territory. Gaza residents with eSIM cards or with the Oredoo provider in the north continue to have limited access.
The outages made it difficult for people in the church to reach them.
An aid worker in Gaza, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his privacy because he was not authorized by the organization to speak, said one of his colleagues was hit in the legs by shrapnel in the attack.
A doctor at the church performed quick surgery to remove shrapnel from one leg, the aide said, but was unable to remove shrapnel from the second leg, which may have suffered a fracture.
The helper said he was initially able to receive updates from another colleague who has an eSIM. But then the colleague's phone broke.
“I wonder if the accusations will be, 'It was a Catholic branch of Hamas!'” he told The Post via WhatsApp message. “Not just the families, there are also 50 children with physical and mental disabilities who are looked after by sisters.”
British MP Layla Moran said her relatives were among the hundreds of civilians trapped in the church. Moran told the BBC that her family members were “just days away from dying” without access to water or food.
“I’m not sure now whether they’ll survive until Christmas,” Moran told the BBC.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said that in addition to the midday sniper attack, a rocket from an IDF tank also hit the convent of the Sisters of Mother Teresa, a mission that is home to more than 54 people with disabilities.
The strike destroyed fuel reserves and the generator that provided the building's only source of electricity. The explosion and fire resulting from the attacks also damaged the mission's house, making it “uninhabitable” and displacing the disabled residents, including those who need breathing apparatus to survive, the patriarchate said.
Saturday's strike is reminiscent of an attack in October following an attack on the historic Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, Gaza's oldest active church. About two weeks into the war, hundreds of Palestinian civilians sought shelter in the church when Israeli forces launched an attack that killed 18 people and injured 20 others.
The IDF said at the time that an attack on a Hamas control center “damaged the wall of a church in the area” and that the church was not a target.
Israel is facing growing criticism, including from President Biden, that its “indiscriminate bombings” are undermining support for its war in Gaza as the death toll rises.
Bellware reported from Chicago.
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