His Eminence Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, who is originally from Greece, questions why Israel targeted the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza and "killed innocent people, children, babies, old people, sick people who had come in the church to have the protection?"
Full transcript:
"We are here 2,000 years, by blessing of that, we have to continue our lives in Gaza as a Christian community.
"Yesterday night, about 8:00, the Israeli army hit the building of the Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza - Saint Porphyrius.
"This building it is the offices of the church and it was inside the building, about 150 persons. So they hit it and they killed too many people. So in the ruins we try now to take out the killed people.
"We have a question.
"What for... what for they killed innocent people, children, babies, old people, sick people, who had come in the church to have the protection?"
See the video:
A procession was held for 18 victims, including 8 children, killed by the Israeli bombing of the administration office of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza, which was serving as a sanctuary for civilians.
Video by @Hind_Gaza pic.twitter.com/XsVcViaffF
— Paul Antonopoulos 🇬🇷🇨🇾 (@oulosP) October 20, 2023
At the same time, a funeral procession was held for 18 victims, including 8 children, killed by the Israeli bombing of the administration office of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church.
The Saint Porphyrios Greek Orthodox church in the Gaza, where hundreds of displaced Palestinians had fled, was hit overnight by an Israeli airstrike, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and Hamas government officials announced.
The Hamas government’s press office pointed out that 18 Christian Palestinians were killed due to the airstrike, while Palestinian officials pointed out that at least 500 people — Muslims and Christians – had sought refuge in the church.
The Patriarchate has not yet announced a death toll.
Witnesses told AFP that a place nearby appeared to be the target of the strike, where many Gaza civilians had fled as the war raged in the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli army admitted that it carried out an airstrike in the area yesterday.
“Earlier today (Thursday) Israeli military fighter jets attacked the command and control center of a Hamas terrorist who was involved in firing rockets and shells at Israel,” an army spokesman said.
This center “served to launch attacks against Israel and there was a terrorist infrastructure of the terrorist organization Hamas,” the spokeperson said.
It is noteworthy that the number of Christians in the Gaza Strip has decreased in recent years. It is estimated that there are less than a thousand left (most of whom are Orthodox), while before Hamas took power in Gaza (2007), there were more than seven thousand Christians.
It is recalled that the Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed in an announcement its strongest condemnation of the Israeli airstrike that have struck its church compound in the city of Gaza.
According to Father Issa Musleh of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Bethlehem, the building that collapsed was part of the church’s compound. Dozens were found to have been injured as rescue efforts were still under way on Friday to find victims trapped under the rubble.
“One lady is waiting for her three kids to be pulled out of the rubble,” said another witness at the church, who did not want to give Al Jazeera his real name. “It’s something you can’t really imagine, you can’t really explain.”
An Orthodox Christian, he said he had sought refuge at the church after the war began, thinking it was a safe place. He remained there despite Israel’s order for residents of Gaza City to move south – where bombings have continued nonetheless.
“We didn’t flee last night because we were afraid we might be hit [on the way],” he said.
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