Two Christian women – an elderly mother and her daughter – were shot dead by an Israeli soldier on the grounds of a Catholic church in Gaza City, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has said.
“Around noon [10:00 GMT] today … a sniper” of the Israeli army “murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza” where Christian families have been sheltering since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, the patriarchate said in a statement on Saturday.
“Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister’s Convent. One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,” it said.
The patriarchate highlighted that no warning was given before the shooting started and added that “they were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there are no belligerents.”
Seven more people were also wounded by gunfire as they tried to protect others, the statement said.
“This is a targeted death campaign during the Christmas season on the world’s oldest Christian community,” Hammam Farah, Nahida and Samar’s family member, said in a statement.
Reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the church, which was accommodating Christians in Gaza, has been a target of direct Israeli bombardment over the past few days.
“Major parts of it have been destroyed. Snipers are shooting at every moving object in the yard,” he added.
In its statement, the patriarchate said three projectiles fired by an Israeli tank had also struck a convent of the Sisters of Mother Teresa charity, destroying its generator and fuel supplies, and rendering a building housing 54 disabled people uninhabitable.
According to the Vatican press agency, the strikes wounded three people.
“The 800 remaining Christians in Gaza are on the verge of extinction. They’ve made life very difficult for this community,” Mahmoud said.
Pope Francis on Sunday deplored the killings, suggesting Israel was using “terrorism” tactics in Gaza.
“I continue to receive very grave and painful news from Gaza,” Francis said at his weekly blessing.
“Unarmed civilians are the objects of bombings and shootings. And this happened even inside the Holy Family parish complex, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, people who are sick or disabled, nuns.”
Francis said the two women were killed by “snipers” and also referred to the Patriarchate’s statement that a convent of nuns of the order founded by Mother Teresa was damaged by Israeli tank fire.
“Some would say ‘It is war. It is terrorism.’ Yes, it is war. It is terrorism,” he said.
It was the second time in less than a month that the pope used the word “terrorism” while speaking of events in Gaza.
Gaza’s Christians are one of the oldest communities in the Middle East, dating back to the first century. However, the number of Christians in Gaza has dwindled in recent years. Today there are only approximately 1,000 left, a sharp drop from the 3,000 registered in 2007, when Hamas assumed complete control over the enclave.
After Saturday’s church attack, Italy’s top diplomat Antonio Tajani issued a “heartfelt appeal to the Israeli government and army to protect Christian places of worship”.
Under the recent Israeli bombardments, Christians and Muslims alike sought refuge at several churches in Gaza like Saint Porphyrius. But after this church was bombed, they all moved to the nearby Holy Family Church, located 400 meters away, which has also been bombed now.
Israel has said it is looking into what happened at the Holy Family church on Saturday. But living under siege, Christians in Gaza attest to a spirit of solidarity that has united faiths in their struggle for survival and their dream of freedom.
“We are all Palestinians. We live in the same city, with the same suffering,” said Ayyad.
“We are all under siege and are all the same.”