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Pope Francis condemns killing of two women sheltering at Gaza church [1]

['Miriam Berger', 'Kim Bellware', 'Niha Masih']

Date: 2023-12-16

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JERUSALEM — Pope Francis condemned the killing of two women sheltering at a church in the Gaza Strip, appealing on Sunday for an end to the war. A sniper from the Israel Defense Forces shot the women “without warning” and “in cold blood” Saturday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, an ecclesiastical office for the Latin Catholics in the region, said in a statement earlier. The two were sheltering at the Holy Family Parish, where the majority of Christian families in Gaza have taken refuge during the war, it said.

Identifying the women as Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar Kamal Anton, Francis said that there were “no terrorists” at the Catholic parish and that it is hosting families, nuns and those who are sick or have disabilities.

“Some are saying, ‘This is terrorism and war.’ Yes, it is war. It is terrorism,” Francis said after a prayer with pilgrims gathered at St. Peter’s Square.

It’s not the first time Francis has used the word “terrorism” in relation to the war in Gaza. At his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Nov. 22, Francis said the conflict had “gone beyond war. This is terrorism.” And The Washington Post reported an undisclosed phone call between Francis and Israeli President Isaac Herzog in late October in which the Pope said it is “forbidden to respond to terror with terror,” amid growing global horror over the loss of civilian life in Gaza.

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At least 19,453 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, including thousands of children.

“Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister’s Convent,” the patriarchate said, referring to a building in the parish complex. “One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others inside the church compound. No warning was given, no notification was provided.”

After communications were restored across the Gaza Strip, The Post spoke to Issa Antoun, who described hearing screams in the church courtyard after his mother and sister had left.

“We quickly went out and saw my sister Samar lying face down after she was targeted by a sniper’s bullet, hitting her in the area under her ear. My mother was lying on her back, meters away,” he said on the phone. “When we saw Samar, we all rushed to save her, and snipers opened fire on us, wounding my two children.”

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The pace of the shooting eventually slackened, he said, and they recovered the bodies, later burying them in the church cemetery.

“This is not the first time that the church has been targeted since the beginning of the war, but rather the sixth time. The patriarchate has asked for international protection for us, but as I speak to you, bulldozers are closing the church door, blocking it with a pile of cars that were on the street,” he said.

The IDF said Sunday that representatives of the complex “contacted the IDF regarding explosions that were heard near the church.”

“No reports of a hit on the church, nor civilians being injured or killed, were raised,” the IDF said in an unsigned statement. “A review of the IDF’s operational findings support this.”

Tal Heinrich, a spokeswoman from the Israeli prime minister’s office, also addressed the incident on Monday, asserting that “there was no fighting in the Rimal neighborhood on Saturday where this Catholic church was located.”

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Cellular and internet networks were largely down across Gaza from Thursday evening to Sunday, the latest in a series of near-total blackouts to hit the Palestinian territory. The outages had made it difficult for those inside the church to be reached.

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An aid worker in Gaza, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his privacy because he was not authorized by the organization to speak, said one of his colleagues was hit by shrapnel in her legs during the attack.

A doctor in the church operated quickly on her to remove shrapnel from one leg, the aid worker said, but was unable to dislodge shrapnel from the second leg, which may have sustained a fracture.

The aid worker said he was initially able to get updates from another colleague, who has an eSIM. But then the colleague’s phone died.

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“I am wondering if the accusations will be ‘these were Catholic branch of Hamas!’” he told The Post by WhatsApp message. “Not only the families, there are 50 kids with physical and mental disabilities that sisters are nursing.”

British lawmaker Layla Moran said her relatives are among the hundreds of civilians trapped in the church. Moran told the BBC that her family members are “days away from dying” without access to water or food.

“I’m now no longer sure they are going to survive until Christmas,” Moran told the BBC.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said that in addition to the midday sniper attack, a rocket from an IDF tank hit the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Teresa, a mission that is home to more than 54 people with disabilities.

The strike destroyed fuel reserves and the generator that is the building’s sole source of electricity, it said. The explosion and fire resulting from the strike also damaged the home at the mission, rendering it “uninhabitable” and displacing the disabled residents, including those who need respirators to survive, the patriarchate said.

Saturday’s strike echoes an attack in October on the historic Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, Gaza’s oldest active church. About two weeks into the war, hundreds of Palestinian civilians were sheltering in the church when Israeli forces launched a strike that killed 18 people and wounded 20 others.

The IDF said at the time that a strike targeting a Hamas control center “damaged the wall of a church in the area” and that the church was not a target.

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Israel has faced growing criticism, including from President Biden, that its “indiscriminate bombing” is eroding support for its war in Gaza as the human toll climbs.

“We should have been lighting the Christmas tree, not living as a family and a people in all this pain,” Issa Antoun said. “My mother and my sister are gone, and we will no longer feel any sense of happiness or joy again.”

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[1] Url: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/16/women-killed-at-holy-family-parish-gaza-israel/

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