Emmanuel Macron expressed to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem “his deep concern” about “the dramatic situation” of the Catholic community in Gaza, where two parishioners were killed “in an undignified manner” by an Israeli soldier on December 16, the ministry said on Sunday with . 'Elysium.
During a telephone interview on Saturday, a day before Christmas, with Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzabella, the French president spoke of “his deep concern about the dramatic situation in the Latin American community of Gaza,” where “hundreds of civilians of all faiths (…) were present.” They have been living under bombs and bullets for more than two months while the believers and sisters care for the sick, elderly or disabled.
He expressed his condolences “for the death of two community members who were killed in an undignified manner a few days ago.”
On December 16, a mother and her daughter, both Christians, were killed by an Israeli soldier in front of the only Catholic church in Gaza. Pope Francis condemned the deaths of these two women the next day.
Ahead of Christmas mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Emmanuel Macron asked the Latin Patriarch to “send a message of peace and solidarity to all Christians in the Holy Land and to assure them that France is at their side.”
The President reaffirmed “France’s loyalty to its commitments and in particular to the special role of protection of a certain number of Christian communities exercised by the French Consulate General in Jerusalem.”
“This responsibility, inherited from history, is fully assumed in the face of the current risks that weigh on these communities,” assured Mr. Macron, who at the same time sent a message of “support” and “solidarity” to Christian communities. via the French consulate in Jerusalem.