Israel has bombed six homes in Khan Yunis in southern besieged Gaza, causing multiple casualties, the Interior Ministry in Gaza said.
In a statement published on its official website early on Friday, Ramzi Khoury"condemned the Israeli bombardment of the premises of Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza, where around 500 Palestinian Muslims and Christians are seeking shelter."The statement also stressed that"targeting places of worship constitutes a war crime, and international law makes it clear that houses of worship may under no circumstances be subjected to attacks.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its"strongest condemnation" of the Israeli strike at its church compound. On Thursday,"a journalist team of seven people covering news... near the Israeli enemy’s al Abad site outside the town of Hula, was targeted with machine guns by enemy members, killing one and injuring another," the Lebanese army said in a statement early on Friday.
They asked the Israeli forces to suspend fire"to facilitate the rescue operation," and they complied, the statement added. "We are still assessing the likely casualty figures and our assessment may evolve, but this death toll still reflects a staggering loss of life," the document said."The United States takes seriously the deaths of all civilians, and is working intensively to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza."The strike left body parts strewn on the hospital grounds, where crowds of Palestinians had clustered in hopes of escaping Israeli air strikes.