Israeli sniper kills two women in ‘cold blood’ inside Gaza church

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has said that an Israeli soldier shot and killed two Christian women, an elderly mother and her daughter, on the property of a Catholic church in Gaza City.

 “Around noon [10:00 GMT] today … a sniper” of the Israeli army “murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza” where Christian families have been sheltering since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, the patriarchate said in a statement on Saturday.

“Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister’s Convent. One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,” it said.

The patriarchate stated that “they were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there are no belligerents,” and that “no warning was given before the shooting started.”

This morning Israeli snipers shot and killed my two family friends in an attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza.

Nahida (Um Emad Anton) and Samar, mother and daughter, were walking to the Sisters’ Convent to use the only bathroom.

One was killed as she tried to… pic.twitter.com/ZtTxgsDrVf

— Hammam Farah (@hammam_therapy) December 17, 2023

According to the statement, gunshots also injured seven additional people who were attempting to shield others.

An official on X remarked, “This is a targeted death campaign on the world’s oldest Christian community during the Christmas season.” Hammam Farah is a family member of Nahida and Samar.

Reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the church, which was accommodating Christians in Gaza, has been a target of direct Israeli bombardment over the past few days.

“Major parts of it have been destroyed. Snipers are shooting at every moving object in the yard,” he added.

The patriarchate stated in a statement that three rounds launched by an Israeli tank had also hit a convent belonging to the Sisters of Mother Teresa charity, destroying its fuel supplies and generator and leaving a facility that housed 54 crippled persons unusable.

It continued, “The 54 disabled people are presently homeless and unable to access the respirators that some of them require to survive.”

Three persons were injured in the strikes, according to the Vatican news office.

There are about 800 Christians left in Gaza, and they are almost extinct. For this community, they’ve made things incredibly difficult,” Mahmoud remarked.