US President Donald Trump expresses frustration over Israeli strike on Catholic Church in Gaza
Donald Trump has expressed frustration over the Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic Church where Christians, Muslims and children with disabilities were sheltering.
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US President Donald Trump has expressed frustration over Israel’s deadly strike on Gaza’s only Catholic Church where Christians, Muslims and children with disabilities were sheltering.
Two people were killed in the strike, according to Al-Ahli Hospital spokesman Fadel Naem where the wounded were treated.
Mr Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the strike where he aired his frustration after having “not a positive reaction” to learning of the strike, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
“It was a mistake by the Israelis to hit that Catholic Church, that’s what the prime minister relayed to the president,” Ms Leavitt said.
Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened” by the attack, which came as Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory killed at least 20 people.
“With deep sorrow the Latin Patriarchate can now confirm that two persons were killed as a result of an apparent strike by the Israeli army that hit the Holy Family Compound this morning,” it said in a statement.
“We pray for the rest of their souls and for the end of this barbaric war. Nothing can justify the targeting of innocent civilians.”
Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said “two citizens from the Christian community” were killed in an Israeli strike on the church in Gaza City, with which the late Pope Francis kept regular contact through the war.
“Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy”, Mr Netanyahu said, adding that an investigation was underway and Israel was “committed to protecting civilians and holy sites”.
AFP photographs showed the wounded being treated in a tented area at Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, with parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli with a bandage around his lower leg.
Some of the wounded arrived on stretchers, with one man wearing an oxygen mask.
The patriarchate, which has jurisdiction for Catholics in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Cyprus, condemned the strike and said it “destroyed large parts of the complex”.
“Targeting a holy site currently sheltering approximately 600 displaced persons, the majority of whom are children and 54 with special needs, is a flagrant violation of human dignity and a blatant violation of the sanctity of life and the sanctity of religious sites, which are supposed to provide a safe haven in times of war,” it said.
Israel expressed “deep sorrow” over the damage and civilian casualties, adding that the military was investigating.
“Israel never targets churches or religious sites and regrets any harm to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians,” the foreign ministry said on X.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said attacks on civilians in Gaza were “unacceptable” while her Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called the church attack “a serious act against a Christian place of worship”.
Out of the Gaza Strip’s population of more than two million, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.
Since the early days of the war which erupted in October 2023, members of the Catholic community have been sheltering at the Holy Family Compound in Gaza City, where some Orthodox Christians have also found refuge.
Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war and in his final Easter message, a day before his death on April 21, he condemned the “deplorable humanitarian situation” in the Palestinian territory.
Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch, the head of Catholic charity l’Oeuvre d’Orient, told AFP the raid was “totally unacceptable”.
“It is a place of worship. It is a Catholic Church known for its peaceful attitude, for being a peacemaker. These are people who are at the service of the population,” he said.
“There was no strategic objective, there were no jihadists in this church. There were families, there were civilians. This is totally unacceptable and we condemn in the strongest possible terms this attitude on the part of Israel.”
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ISRAEL STRIKES SYRIAN ARMY HQ
Syria announced that its army had begun to withdraw from violence-hit Sweida, following a wave of Israeli strikes on the capital and a US call for government forces to leave the majority-Druze southern city.
The United States, which is close allies with Israel and has been trying to reboot its relationship with Syria, said an agreement had been reached to restore calm in the area, and urged “all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier voiced concern after ally Israel struck Syria’s army headquarters, saying the violence impeded efforts to bring stability to the war-torn country.
“We’re talking to both sides, all the relevant sides, on this and hopefully we can bring it to a conclusion, but we’re very concerned,” Mr Rubio said when asked by a reporter about the Israeli strikes.
Mr Rubio did not directly reference Israel but spoke of the clashes in majority-Druze city of Sweida that Israel cited for its intervention.
“We are very worried about the violence in southern Syria. It is a direct threat to efforts to help build a peaceful and stable Syria,” Mr Rubio said in a statement.
“We have been and remain in repeated and constant talks with the governments of Syria and Israel on this matter.”
President Trump has been prioritising diplomacy with Syria’s new leadership, seeing an opening after Sunni Islamist-led fighters toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.
IDF BOMBS LEBANON IN ‘MAJOR ESCALATION’
Israel’s military said it struck targets belonging to the militant group’s elite Radwan force, in its latest attack on Lebanon on Tuesday despite a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed group.
A military statement said Israeli fighter jets launched “numerous strikes” on “Hezbollah terror targets in the area of Bekaa”.
The targets included training facilities used to “plan and carry out terrorist attacks against (Israeli) troops and the State of Israel”, it added.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the attacks killed 12 people and injured 12 others.
Hezbollah said the strikes “constitutes a major escalation in the context of the ongoing aggression against Lebanon and its people”.
It called on Lebanese authorities to “take serious, immediate, and decisive action” to uphold a November ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
EX ISRAELI PM BREAKS SILENCE ON JEFFREY EPSTEIN MOSSAD RUMOURS
Israel’s former Prime Minister has slammed the wild conspiracy theories circulating about convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
Last week, American broadcaster Tucker Carlson sparked an uproar when he spoke at the Turning Point USA in Florida where he claimed Epstein worked with Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.
Naftali Bennet served a brief tenure as Israeli Prime Minister from June 2021 to June 2022 at a time when the Jewish state was experiencing significant political instability with numerous snap elections called.
“As a former Israeli Prime Minister, with the Mossad having reported directly to me, I say to you with 100 per cent certainty: The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false,” Mr Bennett shared to X.
“Epstein’s conduct, both the criminal and the merely despicable, had nothing whatsoever to do with the Mossad or the State of Israel.
“Epstein never worked for the Mossad.”
“This accusation is a lie being peddled by prominent online personalities such as Tucker Carlson pretending they know things they don’t,” Mr Bennett wrote.
“There’s a vicious wave of slander and lies against my country and my people, and we just won’t take it anymore.”
IRANIAN PRESIDENT HURT IN ISRAELI STRIKE
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was reportedly injured by an Israeli air strike during the recent 12-day war between Iran and Israel.
According to state media reports, the Iranian President was one of the officials who gathered at an underground facility in Tehran on June 16 for an emergency meeting of the state’s Supreme National Security Council.
Pezeshkian is said to have suffered injuries to his leg as he and the other officials escaped through an emergency shaft when six bombs were dropped on the location.
According to the state outlet, the air strikes were “extremely precise” but Pezeshkian and the other top officials managed to get out alive.
Last week, Pezeshkian was interviewed by former Fox host Tucker Carlson, where the Iranian president said he had been targeted by an air strike during a high-stakes meeting.
“They did try, yes. They acted accordingly, but they failed,” Pezeshkian said in the interview.
“I was in a meeting. We were discussing the ways to move forward, but thanks to the intelligence by the spies that they had, they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting.”
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz denied the allegations.
– with New York Post
ISRAELI BOMBARDMENT KILLS 43; IDF BLAMES ‘TECHNICAL ERROR’
Israeli air strikes killed more than 40 Palestinians, including at a market and a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled.
Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of devastating fighting in the Gaza Strip.
On the ground, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said at least 43 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes, including 11 when a market in Gaza City was hit.
Elsewhere, eight children were among the 10 victims of a drone strike at a water point in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, Bassal said.
Israel’s military blamed a technical problem for that strike, saying it had been targeting a member of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad.
“As a result of a technical error with the munition, the munition fell dozens of meters from the target,” a statement read. “The incident is under review.”
Khaled Rayyan told AFP he was woken by the sound of two large explosions after a house was hit in Nuseirat.
“Our neighbour and his children were under the rubble,” he said. Another resident, Mahmud al-Shami, called on the negotiators to secure an end to the war.
“What happened to us has never happened in the entire history of humanity,” he said. “Enough.”
The Israeli military, which has recently intensified operations across Gaza, said in a statement that in the past 24 hours the air force “struck more than 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip”.
It released aerial footage of what it said were fighter jet strikes attacking Hamas targets around Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, showing explosions on the ground and thick smoke in the sky.
Originally published as US President Donald Trump expresses frustration over Israeli strike on Catholic Church in Gaza
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