TEHRAN – The Israeli occupation regime’s deadly shelling of Gaza’s Catholic church has sparked widespread condemnation. 

Pope Leo has called for an immediate ceasefire following the occupation regime’s strike that damaged the only Catholic church in the Palestinian territory. 

The attack killed three civilians and injured over a dozen others, including the parish priest, a two-year-old child and a person with disabilities. 

Among the dead were an 84-year-old woman receiving trauma care in a Caritas tent and a 60-year-old janitor who had worked at the church for decades.

The Holy Family Church, also known as the Church of the Latin Monastery, had been sheltering more than 600 displaced people, mostly women, children, and the elderly.

The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine denounced the strike as “a stark indication of a systematic policy of desecration, targeting both civilians and houses of worship without regard for international law, religious sanctity, or fundamental human values.”

The Latin Patriarchate of occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem), which oversees the Gaza parish said, “This horrific war must come to a complete end,” adding the victims had turned to the church compound as a safe haven “after their homes, possessions, and dignity had already been stripped away.”

Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch, the head of the Catholic charity l’Oeuvre d’Orient, condemned the attack as “totally unacceptable.”

“It is a place of worship. It is a Catholic church known for its peaceful attitude, for being a peacemaker,” Gollnisch told AFP.

“These are people who are at the service of the population. There were families, there were civilians.”

The church had long been a symbol of shelter. Before his death in April, Pope Francis personally called members of the congregation nightly to check on their safety.

Hamas denounced the strike as a “new crime committed against places of worship and innocent displaced persons,” calling it part of a “comprehensive war of extermination against the Palestinian people.”

This latest bombing is part of a broader pattern. Most of Gaza’s mosques, many of which are historic and still in daily use, have already been leveled by Israeli airstrikes. Minarets have fallen. Prayer halls have burned. Many were destroyed with entire families still inside.

Religious leaders say this is not just the destruction of buildings, but of a people’s identity and faith.

There are now no safe spaces in Gaza. Not churches, not mosques, not schools, or hospitals.

The United Nations and experts within international legal and human rights organizations warn that these ongoing attacks, especially on civilian shelters, places of worship, and the health sector, are not accidental. 

They argue the strikes reflect a systematic campaign to eliminate not only Gaza’s population, but also ensure the territory is uninhabitable for the Palestinian population. 

On Friday, dozens of civilians were killed by “drone missiles packed with nails” in al-Mawasi, an allegedly designated safe zone where massacres have repeatedly taken place.  

This is the process of a U.S.-backed Israeli regime’s genocide in a deliberate manner that is being conducted with impunity.