The Holy Family school, which has been hosting displaced persons from the conflict for months, was hit in the Israeli army’s attack yesterday. In a statement, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its “grave concern” at the “scenes of civilian casualties and destruction in the complex.” Parish priest Fr. Romanelli: “We are fine, pray for peace.” The day before, at least 16 people were killed at the al-Jawni school in Nuseirat, run by UNRWA.
Gaza () – Two schools hit by Israeli army attacks on Hamas “targets” in the Gaza Strip, one of them belonging to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. A structure that has been “a place of refuge for hundreds of civilians” since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza, according to a note issued by the local Church in the Holy Land. It has been a weekend of bloodshed and war that has just ended and which has once again involved educational institutions that for months have welcomed homeless and shelterless families; the toll is at least 20 dead, 16 of whom died in the attack on the UN school and another 4 in the Catholic school, according to sources in the Strip. Immediately after the attack, Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of the Holy Family in Gaza, posted a message on social networks in which he said that “we are fine” although the situation remains “very bad” and therefore asks everyone to “pray for peace.”
One of those killed in the bombing of the long-closed Catholic school, which was used to house refugees, is said to be Ihab al-Ghusain, Hamas’s deputy minister of labour. In a statement released yesterday, just hours after the attack, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem says it is “following with grave concern reports of raids apparently launched by the Israeli army” against the Holy Family school in Gaza in the morning. “Images and media reports from the scene,” the statement continued, “include scenes of civilian casualties and destruction on the premises.”
Although owned by the patriarchate, the educational institution has been “since the beginning of the war, a place of refuge for hundreds of civilians” while, to date, “no religious personnel reside in the school.” The patriarchate’s note goes on to condemn “in the strongest terms” attacks against civilians or any warlike action “that does not guarantee the protection” of civilians, so that they “stay outside the theatre of fighting.” “We continue to pray for the Lord’s mercy and hope that the Parties,” it concludes, “will reach an agreement that will immediately put an end to the terrifying bloodshed and humanitarian catastrophe in the region.”
Following the establishment of the Patriarchate school in Gaza in 1974 and the construction of new buildings and facilities in the following years, the need for a modern institution capable of meeting the demand for education arose with force over time. The current school, converted into a reception centre, was built in 2001 thanks to the efforts of the then parish priest of the Holy Family, Father Manuel Musallam, and donations from external benefactors. Also in that year, the new school was named after the Holy Family, as was the local parish, which bears this name to commemorate the passage of Mary, Joseph and the Child from Gaza to Egypt. Until its forced closure due to the war, it was one of the most important of the Latin Patriarchate in Palestine and one of the best in the region, providing a high level of education, supporting cultural exchanges and offering “a suitable and safe environment for an exceptional education for all,” as explained on the institute’s website. It includes “all educational stages: kindergarten, primary and secondary” and “the number of students is 700” before, of course, the start of the conflict that paralyzed all activities.
The attack on the Catholic school in the Strip is not the only one that has targeted an educational institution over the weekend that just ended. According to Al Jazeera sources, on July 6, Israeli missiles hit the UNRWA-run Al Jawni school in Nuseirat, which houses displaced Palestinians who had fled the Strip, killing at least 16 people. The attack hit the refugee camp and threw the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir el-Balah, which has a capacity of 200 people and is expected to care for more than 600 patients, into chaos. Army leaders said the attack on the UN school was targeting “terrorists” operating in the area. Meanwhile, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the building was used as a shelter for displaced people and housed hundreds of people, mainly women and children, while Hamas denied that its fighters were present in the facility.
“Another day. Another month. Another school hit,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) yesterday. UN agency spokeswoman Juliette Touma told AFP that 190 facilities, more than half of those run by UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, had been attacked since October 7, some of them “more than once,” and that at least 196 workers had been killed, two of them over the weekend. “When the war started, we closed the schools and they became shelters,” the spokeswoman continued, and there are at least “450 incidents” involving agency buildings, with damage to facilities “unprecedented in the history of the United Nations.” Hamas called the attack on the Al Jawni school a “hateful massacre,” while Israel claims that it targeted “a hiding place and an operational infrastructure from which attacks were carried out” against its troops. Hamas’s attack on southern Israel left 1,195 people dead, most of them civilians, and 251 hostages taken, 116 of whom are still being held by the extremist movement or whose fate is unknown. The Israeli army has killed at least 38,153 people in Gaza, also most of them civilians.
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