The Vatican has reason to doubt Israel's claims that the attack on a Catholic church in the Gaza Strip was a mistake, Cardinal Pietro Parolin said in an interview with Italian television station RAI, DPA reported, BTA reported.
Cardinal Parolin, who holds the post of secretary of state and is the second highest-ranking official in the Vatican, demanded that Israel provide a full explanation for Thursday's attack. Three people were killed and nine were injured in the attack on the "Holy Family" church in Gaza, including the Italian parish priest. Locals say the church was housing about 600 displaced Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Parolin said that "we can rightly doubt" that it was a military error. The cardinal made the statement after speaking by phone with Pope Leo XIV and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu had earlier expressed "deep regret" over the incident.
Parolin stressed that the Vatican was not satisfied with the explanations received so far. "We must give them the necessary time to tell us what really happened - whether it was really a mistake, which we can rightly doubt, or whether it was a deliberate attack on a Christian church," the Vatican secretary of state said.
The Gaza Strip is home to nearly 2 million people, of whom about 1,000 are Christians. There are two other churches in the Palestinian enclave - a Greek Orthodox and an Evangelical. In October 2023, the Orthodox Church of "Saint Porphyry" was damaged in an Israeli airstrike, which the Israeli army said was aimed at a "Hamas" command center.