2023-12-16 21:26:55
A mother and her daughter were killed Saturday by an Israeli soldier in the compound housing the only Catholic church in Gaza City, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.
“Around midday today, an Israeli army sniper killed two Christian women in the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Gaza’s Christian families have taken refuge since the start of the war” between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas, indicates the Patriarchate in a press release.
“Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed while walking towards the Sisters’ Convent,” the statement added, without specifying the age of the victims. Seven other people were injured by gunfire while trying to protect themselves from gunfire in the parish, according to the same source.
“We shot them in cold blood”
The Catholic community in the Gaza Strip, whose Palestinian inhabitants are overwhelmingly Muslim, has 135 members out of a thousand Christians, most of them Orthodox.
A war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, triggered by a bloody attack perpetrated by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip. According to Israel, 1,139 people, mostly civilians, were killed in this attack.
Read also: Gaza: families of hostages ask Israel to “now propose a plan” for negotiation
In retaliation, Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas, shelling Palestinian territory and carrying out a vast ground operation. The Hamas Health Ministry reported Friday that 18,800 people had died in Israeli bombings, mostly civilians.
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