Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani criticised Israeli forces for allegedly shooting and killing people in a Christian compound in the Gaza Strip, saying such actions would not help in its efforts to defeat Hamas, Reuters reports.

“An (Israeli) sniper shot two women inside a church. This has nothing to do with the fight against Hamas because the terrorists are certainly not hiding in Christian churches,” Tajani said, offering a rare censure of Israel from Italy.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Catholic authority in the Holy Land, said at the weekend the two women, named Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar, were shot dead in the compound of the Holy Family Parish in Gaza.

The Patriarchate statement said seven other people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others.

“(We) strongly condemned Hamas’s attack against unarmed civilians … but we also want the reaction of Israel … to be proportionate and spare the civilian population,” Tajani told an annual meeting of Italy’s ambassadors.