Several dead and injured at Gaza church compound after Israel airstrike

The interior ministry in the Gaza Strip said several displaced people who had taken shelter at a church compound in the enclave have been killed and injured after an Israeli strike late Thursday.

The strike left a "large number of martyrs and injured" at the compound of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church, the ministry said.

Witnesses told AFP the strike appeared to have been aimed at a target close to the place of worship where many Gaza residents had taken refuge as the war raged in the Palestinian enclave.

Witnesses said the strike damaged the facade of the church and caused an adjacent building to collapse, adding that many injured people were evacuated to hospital.

وزارة الداخلية بغزة: مـ جزرة جديدة يرتكبها الاحتلال بحق مئات النازحين داخل كنيسة الروم الآرثوذكس بمدينة #غزة، ووقوع أعداد كبيرة من الشهـ داء والـ جرحى... pic.twitter.com/a4G6j2iZTx

— مصدر مسؤول (@fouadkhreiss) October 19, 2023

وزارة الداخلية بغزة: مـ جزرة جديدة يرتكبها الاحتلال بحق مئات النازحين داخل كنيسة الروم الآرثوذكس بمدينة #غزة، ووقوع أعداد كبيرة من الشهـ داء والـ جرحى... pic.twitter.com/CST2we8oyT

— مصدر مسؤول (@fouadkhreiss) October 19, 2023

Saint Porphyrius is the oldest church still in use in Gaza and is located in the city's historic neighbourhood.

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its "strongest condemnation" of the strike at its church compound.

"Targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children and women who have lost their homes due to Israeli airstrikes on residential areas over the past 13 days, constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored," the Patriarchate said in a statement.

The church is not far from the Al-Ahli Arab hospital where a strike killed at least 471 people on Tuesday according to Hamas authorities.

While Hamas has accused an Israeli air strike for the killings, the Israeli army has blamed a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket for causing the deaths.

Gaza has been heavily pounded by Israeli airstrikes since 7 October when Hamas carried out its surprise attack on southern Israel. More than 3,780 people have been killed in the territory under siege, most of them women and children.