(LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic priest in Gaza has told the Vatican that Israeli bombing strikes came within 400 meters of his church after the building had been targeted by Israeli snipers in prior stages of the conflict with Israel.
Father Gabriel Romanelli told Vatican News that Israeli bombing raids earlier this week came notably close to hitting his Holy Family Catholic parish in Gaza.
“The shelling woke us up, they were nearby, 300-400 meters away,” Romanelli said Tuesday. According to the parish priest of Gaza, the parish church was not hit but initial strikes left “more than 350 dead and more than a thousand wounded.”
He expressed the hope that the resurgence of strikes coming from Israel “will not put an end to the ceasefire, that the war will not start again; in this period we have seen that more humanitarian aid, especially food, has entered.”
Some of Romanelli’s parishioners who had fled had recently begun to return under the ceasefire which had been in effect in recent weeks between Israel and Hamas. Now, he said, they are reconsidering a return “because the news is not good and for them, therefore, it is safer ‘from Jesus,’ despite the fact that there is no safe part in the whole strip.”
Romanelli’s parish of the Holy Family has not been spared as the conflict in the region has dragged on.
Infamously, Israeli snipers were accused of murdering two women who were part of a number of refugees sheltering in the building in late 2023.
“Seven more people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others inside the church compound,” declared the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (LPJ). “No warning was given, no notification was provided. They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.”
READ: Israeli forces kill two Christian women in Gaza parish, destroy convent: Jerusalem Patriarchate
The LPJ added that Israeli forces had destroyed the parish’s generator and supplies, despite the church being designated as a place of worship and therefore should be exempt from the hostilities. This destruction meant that a number of the disabled people taking refuge in the church precinct were without the necessary respirators they used.
Then, in the summer of 2024, the parish was struck by the Israeli Air Force, killing several.
READ: Christian persecution continues in Gaza as death toll climbs
Pope Francis has called attention to the plight of Catholics in Gaza by staying in almost daily contact with the parish priest via phone calls. This practice he has reportedly maintained while in hospital for double pneumonia.
Romanelli stated that currently the parish is home to some 500 refugees, including Catholic and Orthodox. Included in that number are religious sisters and individuals with special needs:
There are the sisters of Mother Teresa, the religious of my congregation of the Incarnate Word, the sisters of the same congregation, the Servants of the Lord and of the Virgin of Matara, and we all try to do good, to serve, we pray, we assist the elderly, the children, we also have children with special needs, and we try to make sure that they don’t suffer, because children are sponges, they realize if the adults are anxious.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa – the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem – has regularly issued calls for peace in the region, advocating not for any particular party but for the implementation of peace and rebuilding of family life across the board.
He has raised particular concern about the persecution of Catholics and the targeting of Christians over the course of the conflict.
He visited Holy Family parish in late December, but the visit saw notable controversy after Pope Francis told the Roman Curia that Israeli authorities prevented Pizzaballa from entering Gaza and thus reaching the church. Israel’s embassy to the Holy See swiftly denied such claims.
Interviewed by EWTN in late October, Pizzaballa downplayed human dreams of attaining peace, though noted he had “hope” it would occur. Instead, he recommended a “ceasefire, to stop any kind of violence,” but noted that “peace is an attitude, it is not just an agreement.”
The Italian cardinal added there needs to be “new leadership with vision” in both the political and religious arenas before peace will take place, a likely indirect criticism of Netanyahu, who has repeatedly rejected international resolutions passed at the United Nations to bring the conflict to a halt.
