Scores of Palestinian Muslims on Monday sought refuge in central Gaza City's Church of St. Porphyrius after the Shujaya neighborhood in the eastern part of the city was pounded by Israeli artillery one day earlier.
On Sunday, some 75 people were killed, 200 injured and scores of homes destroyed in Shujaya by unrelenting attacks that the Palestinian Health Ministry has described as the bloodiest since July 7, when Israel began its onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, priests opened the church's doors to the embattled neighborhood's Muslim residents, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter at the scene.
Local resident Mona Gendia said she had sought refuge in the church after her home had been targeted by Israeli artillery.
"We saw bodies strewn about the street as the injured screamed for help," Gendia told AA. "But we couldn't help them; we had to run away – there was nothing else we could do."
When her home was shelled, Gendia recalled, she and her children fled to her family's home – but this, too, had been struck by Israeli artillery.
So she and the rest of her family fled to the church.
Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qodra said earlier that 75 Gazans had been killed in Israel's Sunday attack on the Shujaya neighborhood, while 200 others had been injured.
The Church of St. Porphyrius, one of the oldest in Gaza, was built in the 5th century.
By Mohamed Maged
englishnews@aa.com.tr
