Posted on 10/20/2023 3:22:55 PM PDT by Morgana
A Greek Orthodox church compound in the Gaza Strip sheltering hundreds of Palestinians of multiple faiths was reportedly damaged by a fatal Israeli airstrike on Thursday.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem announced that a building on the compound of the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrios, the oldest church in Gaza, was damaged in the overnight Israeli airstrike.
"The Patriarchate emphasizes that 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 thirteen days, constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored," the Patriarchate of Jerusalem stressed in a statement.
Palestinian health officials claimed that at least 16 Palestinian Christians were among the 18 people killed in the blast, reports The Washington Post. At least 20 others were injured.
Approximately 500 Palestinian Christians and Muslims had reportedly been seeking refuge from airstrikes in the church.
The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) confirmed to AFP that a portion of the church had been damaged during an airstrike targeting Hamas military compounds but maintained that the church itself was not the intended target.
"As a result of the IDF strike, a wall of a church in the area was damaged. We are aware of reports on casualties. The incident is under review," the Israeli military said, adding that they "can unequivocally state that the Church was not the target of the strike."
Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias, who was at the site, said the strike "hit the offices and the entrance of the monastery," according to The Orthodox Times.
"They were bombarded with a missile and the whole building collapsed. There were Christians inside, many of whom have been injured. They have to bring bulldozers, so we can see how many people are under the rubble," the archbishop added.
Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza in response to an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people — including at least 30 Americans. Israel is also said to be preparing for a potential ground invasion into Gaza.
More than 3,000 have been killed and 12,500 injured in the airstrikes, according to Hamas-run government health officials.
The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee, founded in 2020 by a former Trump White House official to "provide public advocacy for the global Orthodox Christian Church," condemned the destruction of the church and called for an end to "the senseless killing of innocent civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian."
"[We] extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and the entire Greek Orthodox community affected by this tragedy," OPAC wrote in a statement.
"OPAC firmly believes in the sanctity of sacred spaces and the importance of protecting religious sites as symbols of peace, unity, and spirituality. The bombing of a place of worship, of any faith, is an affront to the values we hold dear and signifies a grave violation of human rights."
According to OPAC, the church has stood since the 12th century.
"The loss of innocent lives is an intolerable consequence of ongoing conflicts in the region," the OPAC statement concludes. "It is imperative that all parties involved recognize the significance of preserving life and prioritize peaceful dialogue to bring an end to this mayhem."
There are less than 1,000 Christians left in Gaza, a marked decline from the more than 7,000 who lived there before Hamas took over the region in 2007, according to local church officials.
The church is named for St. Porphyrios, who served as bishop of Gaza from A.D. 395 to 420. The present structure, which Crusaders built in the 1100s, was constructed on the former site of an earlier church that dates as far back as the fifth century.
St. Porphyrios also served as a place of refuge for Palestinian Muslims seeking refuge from Israeli bombardment in 2014, according to Reuters.
“These Palestinian Christians support Hamas.”
I’ve never heard this before. How do you even know this?
Gaza chose war with Israel. Bad things happen in war.
What are muslims doing in a Christian Church? Using the Christians as human shields no doubt.
Would they? Really?
Would they? Really?
Okay I understand what you are saying. It just sounds like everyone here is okay with an israeli airstike on a Christian Orthodox church just because they are Palestinian Christians.
I don’t know their heart, only God does. I do know that is a Christian House of God and should be seen as such. I do know it was hit by an air strike and everyone here acts as if it’s okay.
Do they? Really? They may not support Netanyahu, but that's another matter.
Gaza elected Hamas to power. Hamas chose war with Israel. War is very ugly, and there is no perfect, precise war.
I fully agree we cannot lump everyone in together, but the fact as I see it is that virulent anti-semitism is rampant in both muslims and Christians in the middle east. And sure, there are Christians in Gaza, but I am willing to bet they are a vanishingly small minority.
The best expression and description of this reality of anti-semitism is in Bridgitte Gabriel’s excellent book “Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America”.
She grew up a Christian in Beirut and was a teenage girl in 1975 during the Civil War, so she knows of what she speaks, IMO.
She said the anti-semitism was rampant, codified, baked into the schooling and upbringing of everyone (Muslims and Christians alike) and included everything-the bizarre blood slanders of how Jews use the blood of murdered muslim and Christian children to make pastries and all that nonsense.
She said all kids and their parents just lapped this evil pap up, and it was like breathing the air. She believed it as well, and was frightened and repelled by Jews and the Israeli state.
She had to live for over a year in a bombed out basement of their house, and they couldn’t go outside to even use the bathroom during the day, due to snipers and such.
Her cellar was hit by an artillery shell (I think it was most likely a Christan/Druze shell) and her mother was badly injured. She could get no medical assistance from anyone, and in desperation, went to the Israeli border.
With no hesitation, they took her in, hospitalized and treated her mother with the best available care, equal to that given to any Israeli citizen, gave her shelter, money, food, and clothing.
She was astonished that these inhuman Jewish Beasts with blood dripping from their fangs would treat her and her mother this way.
She realized that she had been lied to and indocrinated from birth with these hideous lies and slanders about Jews, and that everyone in that part of the world had been.
Thus, her book.
I had the opportunity to see her some years back in a very small venue (A Portuguese Club, of all places) as a speaker, and she was astonishingly good. Unafraid, attractive, well dressed, well spoken (and outspoken) it is no wonder they hate her and want her dead. She goes against everything they believe in.
Of course, the whole time she spoke, she had a large muscular guy nearly within reach at all times, and I am pretty certain he was armed.
For good reason.
Oh well…..Hamas should not have started this war.
Some parts of the church date to the Crusader Period, but most of the structure dates to the 19th century. Lot of places in Israel like that.
I’ve known muslims from the middle east and all of them yes here dead set against Israel. Could not stand the Jews.
The Orthodox Christians from the middle east that I’ve known? I’ve never heard they say anything. Then again they were easier to talk to and I had more in common with them. We usually talked about the Virgin Mary or the saints, religious stuff like that.
I did not detect the anger in the Orthodox Christians like I do the muslims.
More CNN lies?
I don’t know how much of this is propaganda 0% - 100%.
But I’m thinking that if I’m a devout Christian, I’m not going to choose to live in Gaza, a pseudo-state run and mostly inhabited by the dregs of the Muslim world that aren’t accepted by any ‘civilized’ muslim nation, and ruled by a terrorist-jihadist regime that hates Christians almost as much as they hate Jews.
Unless I was a really devout evangelistic Christian seeking martyrdom... Gaza would be a good place to go for that.
Right out of the playbook
Next we'll hear the Israelis have bombed the local animal shelter.
I agree with you however you know how our government is about letting Christians immigrate to the US.
With that said I’d welcome the Palestinian Christians.
War is hell and innocents die.
IDF warned all civilians to leave
24 hours prior to the commencement
of their bombing campaign. IDF
cannot be held responsible if
those that decided to stay are
willing to accept the risk of
getting blown to smithereens.
I wouldn’t be sticking around with
bombs being dropped, even if it’s
in a place of worship.
They are Christians. Why do you say so called?
Tell us you don’t care without saying “I don’t care.”
Cinder blocks are not very 19th century. I have pics of the neighborhood from when the French controlled it after WW II. It was a TENT CITY. While there was stuff built there centuries ago, that stuff is gone. Any permanent structures there now post date 1947. During the ‘67 war the Israelis made a road out of the Gaza strip. I have pics of that also. Bottom line is whatever it’s called now, it’s made out of cinder blocks and concrete——not 12th century stone work.
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