The IDF bombed the Holy Family Church in Gaza City on Thursday, killing three Palestinians and injuring nine others. Among the victims was 60-year-old Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, who worked in the church as a janitor. The airstrike also killed 84-year-old Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad and 70-year-old Najwa Abu Daoud, both of whom were seeking psychological help through a church support group. A pastor, Father Gabriel Romanelli, sustained injuries to his leg and was hospitalized.

The attack prompted a response from Pope Leo XIV, who expressed sadness for the “loss of life and injury caused by the military attack” on the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip. He also renewed his calls for an “immediate ceasefire.”

“I commend the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God, and pray for their families and the injured,” the head of the Catholic Church wrote on X. “Only dialogue and reconciliation can ensure enduring peace!” The Holy Family Church’s parish complex has sheltered hundreds since Israel began its genocide in Gaza back in 2023. In recent weeks, 541 Palestinians, mostly children and people with special needs, have sought refuge at the church. The late Pope Francis, whom the children referred to as “the grandfather,” called Father Romanelli on a daily basis. He made his last call to the pastor two days before his death in April.

“An initial inquiry into reports regarding injured individuals in the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, suggests that fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly,” the IDF claimed in a statement. It said that the cause of the attack was “under review.”

Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the strike. According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Netanyahu told Trump that “it was a mistake by the Israelis to hit that Catholic church.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the attack, calling it a “flagrant violation of human dignity and a blatant violation of the sanctity of life and the sanctity of religious sites.” Sources close to Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa claim that the cardinal has expressed doubts about the intentionality of the strike, especially given church leaders’ recent denunciations of Israeli settler attacks on the West Bank town of Taybeh.