Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Israeli PM Netanyahu apologises after tank fire hit Catholic Church, killing three
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has issued an apology after a tank fire from Israel hit the compound of Gaza’s only Catholic church, k!lling three people.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which has jurisdiction for Roman Catholics in Gaza, said the Holy Family Church was struck by Israel on Thursday morning. The church has become a shelter for the enclave’s tiny Christian community amid the 20-month war.
The office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy.”
“Israel is investigating the incident and remains committed to protecting civilians and holy sites,” the office added in a statement.
Pope Leo received a phone call from Netanyahu on Friday, following the strike, the Vatican said, in which the patriarch expressed the importance of protecting places of worship.
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During the phone call, which Netanyahu’s office is yet to comment on, Leo renewed his calls for a ceasefire to be reached by the warring sides in Gaza, a statement said.
Pope Leo “again expressed his concern for the dramatic humanitarian situation of the population in Gaza, whose heartbreaking price is paid especially by children, the elderly and the sick,” according to the statement.
Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump in a phone call that the church incident was a “mistake,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a briefing Thursday. Asked about Trump’s view on the strike, Leavitt described it as “not a positive reaction.”
The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged it hit the church “mistakenly.”“An initial inquiry into reports regarding injured individuals in the Holy Family Church in Gaza City suggests that fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly,” the IDF said in a statement on Thursday.
“The cause of the incident is under review.”
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