Israel expresses ‘deep sorrow’ over impact at Gaza Catholic church that killed 3 people, IDF still investigates

Two people were killed when a munition hit Gaza’s only Catholic church on Thursday morning, in a strike that local Catholic representatives blamed on an Israeli tank. The IDF said it is still investigating the incident.

The Catholic charity Caritas in Jerusalem said that a 60-year-old janitor and an 84-year-old woman were killed in an explosion in the compound of the “Holy Family” Church in the eastern part of Gaza City.

Six others were seriously wounded, according to the Italian news agency ANSA, as well as the church’s priest, Father Gabrielle Romanelli, who was lightly wounded in his leg.

بيان صحفي أولي من البطريركية اللاتينية - Press Release of Latin Patriarchate pic.twitter.com/7jvPuTPDPN

— Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (@LPJerusalem) July 17, 2025

The Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said that an IDF tank shell was responsible for the strike. “The IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this, they hit the church directly,” he told Vatican News.

“We don’t have complete information about what has happened in Gaza today because the communication in Gaza is not that simple,” he added.

Several hours after the incident, the Israeli Foreign Minister said in an official statement that Israel “expresses deep sorrow over the damage to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and over any civilian casualty.”

However, the statement noted that the IDF was still examining this incident, “the circumstances of which are still unclear,” vowing to publish the results of the investigation.

“Israel never targets churches or religious sites and regrets any harm to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians.”

The Israeli military so far only said it was “aware of the claim regarding a strike on the Latin church in Gaza City and casualties at the site,” adding it was still investigating.

The IDF stressed that it “acts as much as possible to minimize harm to civilians and civilian structures, including religious buildings, and regrets any harm caused to them.”

In a first reaction, the new pope, Leo XIV, said he was “deeply saddened” by the reports and called for “an immediate ceasefire,” in a statement on his Telegram channel.

“His Holiness Pope Leo XIV was deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Church in Gaza,” the statement continued, without explicitly mentioning Israel.

Italy’s Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni, however, blamed Israeli actions for the strike.

“Israeli raids on Gaza also hit the Holy Family Church. The attacks against the civilian population that Israel has been carrying out for months are unacceptable. No military action can justify such behavior,” she wrote on 𝕏.

Gaza’s small Christian population has suffered dearly amid the war, with many of the around 1,000 Christians fleeing the enclave. The rest have been seeking refuge in the three church buildings in the strip.

Over the course of the war, there have been several incidents where the churches or nearby buildings were damaged by the fighting.

In his comments to Vatican News, Cardinal Pizzaballa added: “It’s too early to talk about all this, we need to understand what happened, what should be done, especially to protect our people, and of course try to make sure that these things don’t happen anymore.”

“Then we will see how to continue, but certainly we will never leave [the Catholic community in Gaza] alone.”