GAZA CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has condemned the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) attack on a Catholic school in Gaza.
“The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem is monitoring, with grave concern, the news of the raids, apparently launched by the Israeli army against the Sacred Family School in Gaza this morning,” the patriarchate said in a statement released on Sunday. “Footage and media reports from the place include scenes of civilian casualties and of destruction in the compound.”
“While property of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Sacred Family School has, since the beginning of the war, been a place of refuge for hundreds of civilians,” the statement continues. “No religious personnel reside in the school.”
“The Latin Patriarchate condemns in the strongest terms the targeting of civilians or any belligerent actions that fall short of ensuring that civilians remain outside the combat scene,” the statement concluded.
On the morning of Sunday, July 7, the IDF launched a strike on the Catholic Sacred Family school in Gaza that, according to AFP, killed at least four people. The IDF claimed the school complex was used by Hamas as a hideout for militants and housed “a Hamas weapons manufacturing facility.”
The attack on Sacred Family School was the second military operation against a school in Gaza this weekend. Gaza authorities said that at least 16 people were killed and 75 injured in an IDF strike on the UN-run Al-Jawni school on Saturday, July 6.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) condemned the strike on the schools, which also killed two UNRA workers, according to AFP.
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said that 190 UNRWA facilities have been attacked by IDF following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.