Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed regret on Thursday after an Israeli tank shell killed three civilians at Holy Family Church, Gaza’s only Catholic place of worship. The incident has drawn international outrage, with Netanyahu attributing the deaths to a “stray” round, following a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
According to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, 10 others were wounded in the strike, including parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli. The compound was sheltering around 600 displaced civilians, including children and 54 individuals with special needs.
Eyewitnesses reported the shell hit directly around 10:30 a.m., with images showing the wounded receiving treatment at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. Father Romanelli was seen with a bandaged leg, while two bodies in white bags lay on the floor, mourned by survivors.
“In the morning a tank shell targeted us and hit the church, and a number of civilians were killed and wounded,” said Shadi Abu Daoud, whose 70-year-old mother was among the dead.
“What we know for sure is that a tank — the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this — they hit the Church directly,” said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The Israeli military claimed that an initial investigation “suggests that fragments from a shell… hit the church mistakenly”, asserting it makes “every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and religious structures.”
But religious leaders and foreign officials were not convinced.
Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch, head of Catholic charity l’Oeuvre d’Orient, condemned the attack:
“It is a place of worship. It is a Catholic church known for its peaceful attitude, for being a peacemaker… There was no strategic objective, there were no jihadists in this church. There were families, there were civilians.”
The Latin Patriarchate added: “The people in the Holy Family Compound are people who found in the Church a sanctuary — hoping that the horrors of war might at least spare their lives.”
Pope Leo XIV, who had maintained close contact with the parish since the conflict began, said he was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy.
The White House also responded to the incident. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that President Trump called Netanyahu and conveyed displeasure:
“It was a mistake by the Israelis to hit that Catholic church, that’s what the prime minister relayed to the president.”
International Response
Foreign leaders from France, Italy, and others described the strike as “unacceptable,” adding to mounting pressure on Israel over civilian deaths and attacks on religious sites.
Gaza’s civil defence agency confirmed that at least 22 people were killed Thursday in various Israeli airstrikes. The Holy Family Church incident has particularly shaken Gaza’s Christian minority, which numbers around 1,000 people, including just 135 Catholics.
The ongoing war, which began after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,219 people, has led to devastating humanitarian conditions. According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 58,667 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israeli retaliatory operations.
Due to media restrictions and limited access, these figures remain unverifiable by independent sources.
As the tragedy at the Holy Family Church reverberates globally, calls are growing louder for stronger protection of civilians and places of worship in war zones — and for a definitive ceasefire in Gaza.