Gaza Christians mourn mother and daughter killed in Israeli attack | Israeli-Palestinian conflict News
Maysa Abu Daoud and her daughter Mary al-Najjar among five Palestinians killed in Gaza City attack.
Published on October 4, 2026
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, expressed his “deep sadness and grief” following the “tragic” killing of two Christian women during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City.
Maysa Abu Daoud and her daughter Mary al-Najjar were among five Palestinians killed in the attack that hit the ground floor of a building in the Remal neighborhood on Saturday, in the latest violation by Israel of a U.S.-brokered “ceasefire” agreement with the Palestinian group Hamas.
In a statement, the patriarch presented his “sincere condolences” to the relatives of the two women and to the Christian community of Gaza.
Their funeral took place on Saturday at Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza’s Old City.
The two women were Palestinian Christians from Gaza City who dedicated their time to helping parishioners and displaced people housed at the Holy Family Church, according to the Palestinian Presidential High Committee for Ecclesial Affairs.
Committee chairman Ramzi Khoury called their deaths a “painful loss” for their families, the church and its parishioners.
Mary’s son, Fouad al-Najjar, 14, told Anadolu news agency that the strike hit the building around 1:30 a.m. (10:30 p.m. GMT).
“My grandmother and my mother are dead. May God have mercy on them,” he said.
Al-Najjar called for an end to Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza, saying Palestinians were losing loved ones every day.
“We are exhausted from this war and have endured so much,” he said. “For almost three years, we have been experiencing the same destruction, the same sorrows and the same war. »
Palestinian Lutheran pastor Munther Isaac, who serves in Ramallah and directs the Bethlehem Institute for Peace and Justice, wrote on X: “The genocide continues in Gaza.”
The Gaza Strip is home to fewer than 1,000 Christians. The community was already small before the war, and many of its members have since been killed in attacks on their homes and churches throughout the war which began in October 2023.
On October 19, 2023, an attack on the grounds of Saint-Porphyre church left at least 18 people dead. Two months later, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said an Israeli sniper shot dead a woman and her daughter inside the compound of the Holy Family Parish in Gaza.
An Israeli strike on the Holy Family Catholic Church compound on July 17, 2025, also killed three people and injured others, including the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli.
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Israeli attacks have left at least 74,228 dead, including at least 1,445 since the start of the “ceasefire” in October 2025.
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