JERUSALEM — The historic Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, Gaza’s oldest active church, was struck Thursday by Israel as it sheltered hundreds of Palestinians displaced by the war, according to religious officials.
Among those reported killed were relatives of former U.S. representative Justin Amash, a Libertarian who once represented Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District.
Amash tweeted Friday afternoon that several relatives who had been sheltering in the church, including two women he identified as Viola and Yara, were killed in the strike.
I was really worried about this. 😔 With great sadness, I have now confirmed that several of my relatives (including Viola and Yara pictured here) were killed at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they had been sheltering, when part of the complex was destroyed as… pic.twitter.com/w5k1xEeTgF
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) October 20, 2023
There are about 1,000 Palestinian Christians remaining in Gaza, and the loss was “huge” for the community, Ayyad said. About 500 Christians, including Ayyad, have relocated to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate School in Gaza City.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Health Ministry said Friday that at least 16 Christians were killed in the strike.
The Washington Post geolocated the strike and confirmed the location of the church based on a video that shows people searching through rubble of a destroyed building in Gaza City. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem blamed Israel for the strike.
The Israel Defense Forces said in an emailed statement that a strike targeting a Hamas control center “damaged the wall of a church in the area” and that it was “aware of reports on casualties” and was reviewing the incident. They declined to provide further information and reiterated, “It is important to clarify that the Church was not the target of the strike.”
Rescuers were still digging through the rubble early Friday. Later in the day, services were held to mourn the dead.
“We pray all the time for a cease-fire,” Ayyad said. “It’s too much for Gazans.”
Ayyad is also a medical director at al-Ahli Hospital, where a blast Tuesday killed 471 people and injured more than 300, according to Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel has disputed that death toll.
The Order of St. George, an associated order of the church, issued a statement confirming Thursday’s strike. “Archbishop Alexios appears to have been located and is alive, but we don’t know if he is injured,” the Order of St. George stated. The blast hit “two church halls where the refugees, including children and babies, were sleeping.”
The Church of St. Porphyrius’s original structure dated to the 5th century, and the current structure, in a historic quarter of the city, was built in the 12th century. It is named for a former bishop of Gaza, Saint Porphyrius, and placed where he is believed to have died in A.D. 420. The church, characterized by thick walls and a richly decorated interior, has long been a place of refuge and community for its members, who are a religious minority in the Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian American woman who moved from Gaza to the United States in the early 2000s said in an interview that she had relatives and friends sheltering in the church at the time of the strike, some of whom were injured.
“They’re terrified. They’re shaken. They don’t know what to do, and they don’t know where else to go,” said the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for her family’s safety. She expressed outrage at the idea that more than 1 million civilians could evacuate from a place as densely populated and heavily bombed as Gaza City — a mass movement called for by Israel last week. “It’s impossible,” she said.
She said that she grew up going to the Church of St. Porphyrius and that her family has deep ties to the church, dating to when they became refugees during the 1948 founding of Israel and mass displacement of Palestinians.
Describing the congregation as close-knit and family-like, she said she’s not only worried about her relatives. “I’m concerned for everyone because we’re a small community.”
Christians make up about 1 percent of Gaza’s population and have faced restrictions and discrimination by the Hamas government, according to human rights groups. During the 2014 Gaza war, about 1,000 Palestinian Muslims fled Israeli shelling for the Church of St. Porphyrius, where graves were damaged by shrapnel from a nearby strike, Reuters reported.
In a statement early Friday, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem said the targeting of churches sheltering innocent citizens “cannot be ignored.”
“The Patriarchate stresses that it will not abandon its religious and humanitarian duty, rooted in its Christian values, to provide all that is necessary in times of war and peace alike.”
Hill reported from New York, and Ables from Seoul.
