GAZA CITY, Palestine / ISTANBUL 

Two people were killed and several others injured when the Israeli army struck a Catholic church in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said.

Fighter jets hit the Catholic Holy Family Church in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City early Thursday, witnesses said.

According to Gaza’s Civil Defense Agency, two elderly Palestinians died, while several other people were injured, including the parish priest, Gabriel Romanelli.

Romanelli was transferred to the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital to receive medical treatment for his leg injury, witnesses said.

In a press release, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem confirmed the attack and the injuries, including the wounding of the parish priest, stating that the church has sustained damage.

The Israeli army claimed that the circumstances of the attack were under review.

The army alleged that it exerts all efforts to “mitigate harm to civilians and civilian structures, including religious sites, and regrets any damage caused to them.”

In the course of its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has bombed several worship places, including the Gaza Baptist Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, the oldest in the Gaza Strip and the third oldest in the world.

The Holy Family Church is the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, which has been sheltering many displaced Christian and Muslim Palestinians since October 2023.

The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 58,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.