An explosion rocked a historic Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City on Thursday night amid Israel’s continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip, as the country’s military prepared to enter the Palestinian territory to destroy the Hamas militant group.
Videos emerged early on Friday of apparent damage and casualties at the St. Porphyrios Orthodox Church in Gaza City; the region’s oldest church that was reportedly serving as a shelter for hundreds of Palestinians displaced in Israel’s 13-day-old military campaign.
Palestinian authorities and the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem blamed the Israeli military. The Patriarchate published a statement in which it expressed “its strongest condemnation of the Israeli airstrike that have struck its church compound in the city of Gaza.”
Thursday’s attack, it added, “constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored.”
The IDF spokesperson unit later told Newsweek in a statement that it was responsible for damage to the church, but that it “can unequivocally state that the Church was not the target of the strike.”
“The command and control center was used to carry out attacks against Israel, and contained infrastructure belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization,” it said. “As a result of the IDF strike, a wall of a church in the area of the center was damaged. We are aware of reports of casualties. The incident is under review.”
Read more at Newsweek.com
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