GAZA CITY: Two of the most senior Christian leaders in Jerusalem travelled to Gaza on Friday, a day after Israeli fire killed three at the Palestinian territory’s only Catholic church.

The rare visit came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “deeply regrets” the strike on the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and blamed a “stray” round.

The Catholic Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and his Greek Orthodox counterpart, Theophilos III, headed to Gaza and met local Christians following Thursday’s strike.

They visited both the Holy Family Church and the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church in what the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem called “the shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land and their concern for the community of Gaza”.

The Greek Orthodox Jerusalem Patriarchate called it a “powerful expression” of church unity and solidarity.

`Stop the needless slaughter’

The clerics last week visited the occupied West Bank with diplomatic representatives from more than 20 countries after an attack on an ancient Byzantine-era church blamed on Israeli settlers.

Both churches said the Gaza visit had been facilitated with the help of aid agencies and also involved the delivery of food supplies and emergency medical equipment.

In Italy, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the delegation arrived with 500 tonnes of aid for local civilians. Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened” by the strike on the church, where hundreds of displaced people were sheltering, including children and those with special needs.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2025