The community assures that no belligerent was within its walls. A mother and her daughter were killed by an Israeli soldier on Saturday in the grounds of Gaza City's only Catholic church, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.
“Today around noon, an Israeli army sniper killed two Christian women in the parish of the Holy Family in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families in the Gaza Strip have sought refuge since the beginning of the war,” the Patriarchate said in a press release. “Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot on the way to the sisters’ convent,” the statement said, without specifying the victims’ ages.
According to the same source, seven other people were injured by gunfire as they tried to protect themselves from gunfire in the community. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reports. “They were shot in cold blood,” the Patriarchate accused, even though “no belligerent is within the walls of the parish.”
A community of about a hundred people
The Catholic community in Gaza, whose Palestinian population is predominantly Muslim, has 135 members out of a thousand Christians, most of them Orthodox.
On October 7, war broke out between Israel and Hamas, triggered by a bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip. According to Israel, 1,139 people, mostly civilians, were killed in this attack. In retaliation, Israel promised to “destroy Hamas,” shell Palestinian territory and conduct a major ground operation. The Hamas Health Ministry reported Friday that Israeli bombings had killed 18,800 people, mostly civilians.