Christian patriarchs visit Gaza after Pope and Trump have condemned the church strike Israeli

Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip (AP) top church leader visited Gaza on Friday after his only Catholic church was hit by one Israeli shell The day before, an attack killed in which three people killed and 10 were wounded, including a priest who had developed a close friendship With the late Pope Francis.

The strike condemned the Pope and the US President Donald Trump and, to regret, stated that it was an accident. Since End a ceasefire in MarchIsrael regularly started in Gaza stripes against the Hamas militants, who often kill women and children. Strikes killed 18 people overnight, said health officers on Friday.

Pope Leo XVI. In the meantime, renewed his call for negotiations to end the 21-month war on Friday with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke out of the victims.

Church leaders organize help, evacuations

The religious delegation to Gaza included two patriarchs from Jerusalem – the Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III. The rare visit aimed at expressing the “joint pastoral concern of the churches in the Holy Land”, according to a statement.

Since the beginning of the war, Israel has had a strongly restricted access to Gaza stripes, although the leaders of the church have occurred on previous occasions, usually on large holidays.

They visited the Catholic Church of the Holy Family, whose site was damaged in the fire. They also organized convoys that brought hundreds of tons of food, medical care and other devices to the area – which experts say, pushed to the edge of the famine Through Israel's war and military offensive – and the evacuation of the wounded in the church strike.

In his call with Netanyahu, Pope Leo XVI pressed. “Again his concern about the dramatic humanitarian situation for the population in Gaza, with children, older people and illnesses paying the most heartbreaking price,” said the Vatican in a statement.

Netanyahu “expressed Israel regret for the tragic incident in which stray ammunition accidentally met the Holy Family Church in Gaza,” said the prime minister's office in a statement. The Israeli military has explained that it was investigating the incident.

In an earlier statement, the Pope had repeated “his intentions to do everything to stop the useless slaughter of innocent people” and “sentenced the unjustified attack” to the church.

The Vatican said that the Pope had also received an update about the condition of Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, the local priest of the church, which was slightly wounded. The priest had spoken regularly with Pope Francis, who died in April and who had told the Pope of the civilians' struggles in Gaza.

“We can't get them out, even in small pieces”

Israel has repeatedly beaten schools, accommodations Hospitals and other civil buildingsaccused Hamas' militants to protect themselves inside and to accuse them for civilian deaths. The Palestinians say that since nowhere has started his offensive in response to the attack on the attack on October 7, 2023.

Israeli strikes killed overnight and on Friday at least 18 Palestinians, including a strike against a house in the southern city of Khan Younis, in which four members of the same family were killed. According to Mora recordings in the Nasser Hospital, which received the corpses.

Associated Press film material of the consequences of the strike showed that people look through the rubble in search of remains.

“They are still under the ruins,” said Belal Abu Sahloul, a relative of the killed. “So far we can't get them out, even in small pieces.”

In the hospital there was a mother to see her daughter's hand, who had been killed in one of the other strikes and placed in a body pocket. Almost 18,000 Palestinian children have been killed since the beginning of the war, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Israel's military said that it was “operated on to reduce Hamas' military skills” and “Practical precautions to reduce civil damage”.

According to health officials, three more were killed for help in the search for help

The Nasser Hospital said that three other people were killed while they were led to a help of the Humanitarian Foundation Gaza. An Israeli -supported American contractor. A spokesman for the foundation said that there is no violence at its locations overnight and that the crowds are “kind”.

Since the beginning of the operations of the group at the end of May, according to witnesses and health officers, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed on the way to the locations at the shootings of Israeli soldiers. The four locations of GHF are all in militarily controlled zones, and the Israeli military has explained that its troops have only fired warning shots to control the crowd. There was no military comment on the last deaths.

The militants led by the Hamas killed around 1,200 people in the attack on October 7, mainly civilians, and kidnapped 251 people, most of whom have been released in ceasefire agreements or other shops since then. There are still fifty hostages

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the Israeli retaliation offensive has killed over 58,600 Palestinians, in which women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its balance sheet.

The ministry is part of the government led by Hamas, but is led by medical specialists. The United Nations and other international organizations look at their numbers The most reliable number of war losses.

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Frankel reported Tel Aviv, Israel and Khalo from Cairo. The AP correspondent Colleen Barry reported from Vatican City.