(17 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – 17 July 2025
1. Various of the bodies of two Christians who were killed in Israeli strike on Holy Family Church
2. Various of mourners attending funeral inside the Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius
3. Various of Greek Orthodox Archbishop Alexios leading funeral and ceremony starting
4. Various of mourners
5. Various of funeral ceremony
6. Close on bodies
7. Alexios at ceremony
8. Various of ceremony ending, bodies covered, mourners praying
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mossa Ayyad, displaced Christian:
"The Holy Family Church’s displacement center, the Latin Monastery, were bombed at 10 o’clock in the morning as worshippers were leaving the church after the prayer ceremony. As a result of this bombing, two were martyred, another two wounded in critical condition, and two others wounded and in surgery now in the Ahli Hospital. There are more than five injuries who received treatment in departments and then left the hospital. This is in addition to all the displaced people in the church being terrified and afraid. Of course, we have been living for nearly two years in a state of starvation, lack of medical treatment, lack of medicine, repeated targeting, and constant death."
10. Various of mourners carrying wrapped bodies to cemetery inside church to burry them
11. Wrapped body inside the grave
STORYLINE:
The funeral of two Christians killed by an Israeli strike took place late Thursday in Gaza City. They were two of three victims who died then a Israeli shell slammed into the compound of the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, wounding 10 others, including the parish priest, according to church officials.
The late Pope Francis, who died in April, had regularly spoken to the priest about the situation in the war-ravaged territory.
The shelling of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza also damaged the church compound, where hundreds of Palestinians have been sheltering from the 21-month Israel-Hamas war. Israel issued a rare apology and said it was investigating.
Later in the day the bodies were taken to the Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, where the funeral was performed.
The three people killed by the Israeli attack were Christian Orthodox living at the Holy Family Church together with dozens of others displaced.
Mossa Ayyad, a displaced Christian, living within the church compaound, witnessed tha attack, stressing that "all the displaced people in the church being terrified and afraid."
The church compound was sheltering both Christians and Muslims, including a number of children with disabilities, according to Fadel Naem, acting director of Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the casualties.
The Catholic charity Caritas Jerusalem said the parish’s 60-year-old janitor and an 84-year-old woman receiving psychosocial support inside a Caritas tent in the church compound were killed in the attack.
Parish priest Romanelli was lightly wounded.
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire in response to the attack.
In a telegram of condolences for the victims, Leo expressed “his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region.”
The pope said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack,″ and expressed his closeness to the wounded priest, Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, and the entire parish.
AP production by Wafaa Shurafa
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