Christian mother, daughter killed while sheltering in Gaza church, patriarch says
Sole Catholic church in Gaza claims pair killed by IDF sniper fire, generators and water source struck by tank; British MP says her family sheltering in church ‘days away from dying’
A Christian mother and daughter were allegedly shot and killed by an Israeli sniper on the grounds of a Catholic church in Gaza City on Saturday, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem said.
“Around noon today… a sniper of the IDF murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families have taken refuge since the start of the war,” the patriarchate said in a statement published in both English and Arabic.
“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 added.
Seven more people were wounded by gunfire as they tried to protect others, the statement said.
“No warning was given, no notification provided. They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there are no belligerents.”
According to the Vatican press agency, citing Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, the victims were an elderly woman and her daughter.
Approached for comment, the Israeli military said it was looking into the incident, which took place on the grounds of the Gaza Strip’s only Catholic church.
In its statement, the patriarchate also said three projectiles fired by an Israeli tank had struck the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Theresa, destroying its generator and fuel supplies, and rendering a building housing 54 disabled people uninhabitable.
“The 54 disabled persons are currently displaced and without access to the respirators that some of them need to survive,” it added.
According to the Vatican press agency, the strikes wounded three people.
“We cannot but express that we are at a loss to comprehend how such an attack could be carried out, even more so as the whole church prepares for Christmas,” the patriarchate said.
— Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (@LPJerusalem) December 16, 2023
Italy’s top diplomat, Antonio Tajani, issued a “heartfelt appeal to the Israeli government and army to protect Christian places of worship.”
“That is not where the Hamas terrorists are hiding,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
Following the incident, a British member of parliament for the Liberal Democrat Party revealed that her family are among those sheltering inside the Catholic church.
Speaking to the BBC on Saturday, MP Layla Moran said that her family have no access to food or water and are “days away from dying.”
On December 15, Moran said it had “been a horrible few days,” in a post on X. She added that her family had reported hearing gunfire inside the compound and that “the bin collector and the janitor have been shot and their bodies are laying outside and remain uncollected.”
On Saturday, she shared an update, writing, “Soldiers are at the gates and there was a fire when they hit one of the (already dysfunctional) generators. There is no water left. There are 300 people there. We don’t know why this is happening. Are they going to be expelled from a church just days before Christmas??!”
Throughout the war, Moran has routinely condemned Hamas and called for Israeli and Palestinian officials to seek a two-state solution.
On December 15, she and other members of the Liberal Democrats spoke with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid about the ongoing war and the need to remove Hamas from power to ensure a safe future for Israelis and Palestinians alike, the UK newspaper The Jewish News reported.
The Liberal Democrats are an internationalist party and believe that dialogue is always the way forward. Last week @EdwardJDavey & I held a phone call with the leader of Yesh Atid, our Israeli sister party, Yair Lapid, to discuss the war in Israel & Gaza.https://t.co/0iz8SUjl5K pic.twitter.com/l8Np7ImjpG
— Layla Moran ???? (@LaylaMoran) December 15, 2023
Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza was triggered by the group’s onslaught in Israel on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists flooded into Israel via land, air and sea, massacring more than 1,200 people and seizing some 240 hostages.
In response, Israel launched an aerial campaign and subsequent ground invasion, vowing to eliminate Hamas from the Gaza Strip and end their 16-year rule.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry has said that since the start of the war, some 18,800 people have been killed, most of them civilians. These numbers cannot be independently verified, however, and are believed to include some 7,000 Hamas or Hamas-affiliated operatives, as well as civilians killed by misfired Palestinian rockets.
