Several killed in Israeli strike at Gaza church compound

The Hamas-controlled interior ministry said several displaced people who had taken shelter at a church compound in the Gaza Strip 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.

The Israeli army when contacted said that it was checking the reported strike.

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.

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

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

Gaza has been hit by a relentless barrage of Israeli fire in retaliation for a Hamas militant attack on October 7, which Israel says killed at least 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Israeli bombing since has killed at least 3,859 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry.