Click to see full-size image. By the Israeli Air Force.
The last wave of Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip has reportedly damaged a historic Orthodox church, killing and wounding a number of displaced civilians who were taking shelter there.
The Hamas-run interior ministry said that a strike late on October 19 left a “large number of martyrs and injured” at the compound of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza city. The Strip’s government media office reported the next day that 18 Christian Palestinians were among the dead.
Playing down the strike, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) told AFP that it had hit a command and control center involved in launching rockets and mortars towards Israel.
“As a result of the IDF [Israeli army] strike, a wall of a church in the area was damaged,” it said, adding “we are aware of reports on casualties. The incident is under review.”
Saint Porphyrius, built in about 1150, is the oldest church still in use in Gaza. Located in an historic neighborhood of Gaza city, the church offered sanctuary to people of various faiths over generations.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its “strongest condemnation” of the Israeli strike in a statement.
“Targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children and women who have lost their homes due to Israeli airstrikes on residential areas over the past 13 days, constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored,” the patriarchate’s statement reads.
The church was not the first or the last historic place of worship in Gaza to be targeted by the IDF. On October 20, Israeli strikes destroyed the historic al-Omari Mosque in northern Gaza. The ancient mosque dates from the 7th century and is the third largest mosque in historic Palestine.
In its latest update, the IDF announced that it hit more than 100 targets in overnight strikes across Gaza. The attacks destroyed tunnel shafts, munitions warehouses and dozens of operational headquarters, it said.
Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the IDF, said that the rate of attacks by the Israeli Air Force on Gaza has not been seen in “decades”. He added that the air force was collaborating with Israel’s intelligence division in its campaign.
According to Gaza’s health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra, 4,137 Palestinians have been killed so far in Israeli strikes on the Strip, including 1,661 children.
At least 13,260 others were wounded, the spokesman said, adding that officials in Gaza received 1,400 inquiries on missing people including 720 children.
“Operations are being done on the floor, on the ground, in the corridors of the hospital,” al-Qudra said.
With regard to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the spokesman said that seven main hospitals and 21 health centers were placed out of service as a result of the Israeli strikes and blocked.
Forty-six members of medical teams have been killed and 23 ambulances were completely destroyed by Israeli strikes, he added.
“What’s going on in the Gaza Strip is a big massacre against our Palestinian people, against the Muslims and Christians … Israel is undoubtedly going to commit more massacres and the international world is witnessing [this],” al-Qudra explained.
Israel’s bombardment failed to stop attacks by the Hamas Movement. The group’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, fired rockets at the cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in addition to several settlements neighboring Gaza.
Al-Qassam also released footage showing recent mortar strikes on IDF gatherings near the Strip as well as a drone attack on an Israeli Merkava Mark 3.
According to Israeli officials, just over 1,400 Israelis were killed and more than 4,000 others were wounded during and after the October 7 Hamas-led surprise attack. So far, the IDF has confirmed that 203 people were captured in the initial attack. Hundreds others remain missing.
Casualties on both sides are expected to rise sharply once the IDF launches the ground phase of its large-scale operation in Gaza.
The invasion will also worsen the humanitarian situation in Gaza and generate high tensions across the Middle East. Israel’s main goal, which is to eradicate Hamas, will not likely be achieved without the displacement of more than two million Palestinains and the reoperation of the Strip.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC:
they need more drones dropping bombs on tanks.
no evil deed ever goes unpunished. the tiny, welfare funded, banana republic of israel and its apartheid, zionist-supremacist, ultra orthodox, parasitic leaders mouths have been writing checks their bodies can’t cash. hamas has become the anvil and soon hezbollah will be the sledge hammer once the idf is bogged down in the catacombs of gaza.
not a single “christian” in the west will care.
thats because western “christians” are apostate cultists , for the most part .they worship their empire and all its idols, like the romans worshipped caesar
let’s be honest, there isn’t much christians left in this lgbtq+ west.
at least the fundamentalist christians believe that israel is god’s promised land for the jews, and the jews are god’s chosen people. this is why they are ready to accept everything the jews do. it is just right, because they are the chosen ones. what a stupidity.
there’s a lot of true christians who care, but the aipac controlled government, military and media have a monopoly on the so called “information” as a born, raised, educated and baptized seventh day adventist, i find israeli zionist-supremacists and their puppets actions against palestinians abhorrent and undeniably criminal. no evil deed ever goes unpunished. their day of reckoning is soon at hand.
wrong.
and a useless, arrogant, ignorant statement.
i know lots of christians in europe (i don’t know what “the west” is) who care deeply.
russia ought to be outraged for this.
this proves zionists hate christianity, yet you have so called christians here in america that support the zionist entity.
the followers of the synagogue of satan are fake jews and they hate nothing more than christians.
the collective west silently witnessing these war crimes are de facto the accomplices of the zionazis child killers.
it is because of their full backing that the vile zio satanists are attempting to erase the palestinian people and their history in order to steal their land.
these shameful western “democracies” are therefore exposed as enemies of humanity.
they’re just leveling the place to later annex the territories to their state
so, after all of the rockets hamas launched, you are telling me none of the missiles caused any causalities on the israeli side, wow hamas is a complete joke! israel allowed hamas fighters to infiltrate into their territory and commit the atrocities that they did to justify israel coming into the gaza strip and slaughtering the palestinians! and you know what hamas fell right into their trap their best bet is to give themselves up to the israelis, so that their people won’t continue to suffer!
its not as simple as that. they set a presedent, and now israeli people dont feel safe. they are leaving many towns near the confict zones and finding their quality of life reduced. many israelis are leaving the country. hamas however are used to being blown up, its business as usual. this comes after israel hinted that there was mid-east peace, inferring the palestinians were subdued permanently. this war upsets that.
why you insult me? i change diapers 3 days ago
ah, actually, hamas are the ones looking shiningly bright compared to the zionist and us loosers… and their supposedly intelligent british masters.
ah, so israel is going back to talking point #1 ‘human shields’. talking point #2 is, ‘it was palestinian rocket’. they should just say, #1.
kill the jewish vermin from toddlers to elderly without mercy !
muslims are a plague and must be eradicated
there is one tribe i can think that has been kicked out of many many countries and despised for thousands of years. they are not muslims
is there some law of nature that guarantees we’ll never see jews walking away from their bombed homes carrying their belongings and living on the street? my guess is that many people, of many nations will be very happy to see these arrogant ones learning what it’s like to be on the receiving end of an asymmetrical attack. tolerance for jewish supremacy is running thin right now.
its part of israels goal wipe out the nation of amalek as writen in the torah. they want to kill women and children and erase the memory of them even you can search for the rabbis preaching this from yosef mizrachi to plenty of others even a israeli vet at 95 of age boasting about how the genocided the pals back in the day and the idf should do it now. disageeing with them genociding the palestinians is anti semitic because its part of their religion
also i want to note that under a so called islamic regime that they claim hamas to be the christian palestinians were safer for 16 years then under what israel has done to them. search on you tub the goldy think to do is to kill you. this is what many jews believe. all christians are idol woreshippers and deserve to be killed when there is a sanhedrin, a jewish court that implements jewish law to the land.
this is also why israel supported and gave weapons to aliyev so he could erase the ancient armenian population of artsakh from existence. there by destroying the most ancient christian history in historic armenia. israel also funded and supplied isis to erase history from ancient babylon to ancient palmyra. isis was dead set at destroying anything they saw as idol woreship.
israel wants the civilizations of these countries destroyed and erased so they can genocide and drive out the people living there and colonize the land for their greater israel project. the only thing that stood in their way were iran and russia who defeated isis and restored law and order in most of iraq and syria.
deeply sad. pray for the faithful.
will iran be the one to finally remove this curse from humanity? either way the sickness of zionazism must be cured and the hollow cost sect must be defanged for the safety of all humanity. as ussan slash anglozionazi power evaporates at breakneck pace will china and russia finally assume their rightful role in the all new “new world order” and establish a state for the too long suffering people of palestine?
the problem is mainly that too many christians in this world want the jewish prophecies to be true. they support israel with money and weapons without logic. if the massive aid for the zionist from the west was alot less their expansionism would be far less ambitious. but israel calls the usa and they just gave them an additional 10 billion dollars in us tax payers money in military aid. its that ridicioules.
meanwhile russia is being condemnd by israel and their media outlets for giving humanitarian aid to the palestinians in gaza
just watch the russia today interview with the likud party leader. he says never forget and he blames russia that russia will pay the price and he falsly accuses russia of the hamas attacks. he wants to target russia. search for it on rumble israeli politician has meltdown live on rt discussing gaza hospital strike
these zionists are psychopaths. they want to enslave the world trough central bank digital currency and force us to wear a chip. bill gates even wants the deathpanel so ill people have to prove in court why they deserve to livr and recieve medial care
the only thing holding them back is the multi polar world who delay their plans. when russia invaded ukraine the whole of europe was cured from covid in just 1 day.
the day before the invasion the government narrative on television was all about going to force people to take the clothshot/vax and making it mandatory. the day after the invasion the whole narrative shifted on the war and suddenly there was no more covid. this is how media propaganda works they lie. europe is run by the jewish bankers and pharmaceutical companies who want pandemics and disasters to acquire more power
and enslave the populance. the american military industrial complex needs wars so they can make profits. they create false narratives and inside job 911 wars they provoke false wmd invasions to reap profits
thats why i dont support israel, christian killers.