Vatican City, Jul 17, 2025 / 18:00 pm (CNA).
Father Yusuf Asad, 49, who has been the assistant parochial vicar at Holy Family Church in Gaza for six years, had just celebrated morning Mass when a loud bang sounded. At around 10:20 a.m. local time, a projectile hit the building.
“It fell directly on the roof. The explosion occurred next to the cross atop the church and soon scattered shrapnel throughout the courtyard,” Anton Asfar, director of Caritas Jerusalem, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. He received a call from Gaza shortly after the attack alerting him to the incident.
“It was later clarified to us that at the time of the explosion, there were some people in the courtyard outside, even though Father Gabriel Romanelli, the pastor, had warned everyone to stay inside,” he explained.
Still shaken, he added: “Without Father Romanelli’s warnings to stay inside, we could have lost 50 or 60 people. It would have been a massacre.”
The parish compound consists of the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, a school, a convent, a multipurpose center, and a Missionaries of Charity building. At the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, it became a makeshift shelter for more than 500 displaced people.
The majority are Orthodox Christians, Protestants, and Catholics, but there are also more than 50 Muslim children with disabilities living there with their families.
“We are assessing the situation together with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem to understand what has happened. People are in shock,” he said.
He explained that the Israeli army issues an evacuation or displacement order every day. “There is a constant threat. Two Sundays ago, there was an evacuation order for the residential neighborhood of al-Zaytun,” where the parish is located in Gaza City, he added.
In fact, the attacks have intensified in recent weeks, and bombs have continuously fallen on the surroundings of this parish.
‘There are no safe areas in Gaza’
“It is very difficult to move people. Everyone is determined to stay in the churches and continue taking refuge there. But the truth is that there are no safe areas in Gaza anymore,” he lamented.
So far, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has confirmed three deaths. They are Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, 60, who was the parish maintenance manager and was in the courtyard at the time of the explosion.
The other two fatalities are Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad, an 84-year-old woman, and Najwa Abu Daoud, 70, who were receiving psychological care at the time inside the tent of the Caritas psycho-social support project.
“People were terrified when the evacuation of the wounded to the hospital began. Father Gabriel [Romanelli] was also taken because he had a minor leg injury, but he is out of danger,” Asfar confirmed.
In addition to the Argentine priest from the Institute of the Incarnate Word, eight other people were injured and rushed to Al Mamadami Hospital, just one kilometer (.62 miles) from the church. But the bombings have also pushed to the limit the capacity of health centers, with no electricity or medical supplies. “There is no medicine, no drinking water. There is a severe shortage of fuel, which is essential for hospitals and medical centers,” he pointed out.
The Gaza Interim Foundation is not enough
The last significant influx of humanitarian aid into Gaza occurred more than four months ago.
“Nothing has entered since March 2. Only small amounts of aid. The only active operation is the Gaza Interim Foundation, but it’s not enough. Four centers cannot replace the 400 distribution points that existed during the truce,” Asfar noted.
Furthermore, the management of this organization, also known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), — created in February 2025 and supported by the United States and Israel — has raised growing suspicions that it has turned food distribution into a weapon of war. According to UN figures, more than 400 Gazans have already died at GHF aid distribution points.
The humanitarian situation is dire. Caritas currently has more than 120 staff operating in Gaza, spread across ten medical centers, but resources are dwindling. The borders remain closed, which has put the population in a desperate situation. “People are dying of hunger. All the children are suffering from malnutrition,” the director of Caritas Jerusalem warned.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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CWR, can you please explain why you have an article headlined, “Gaza’s Only Catholic Priest…,” referring to Fr. Romanelli, followed three hours later by one that begins with: “Father Yusuf Asad, 49, who has been the assistant parochial vicar at Holy Family Church in Gaza for six years, had just celebrated morning Mass…”
I might not be any good at math first thing in the morning, but I just can’t make it add up.
Wake up, Catholics. *Israel is not your friend*
Israel is our friend & Jews are our elder brothers in the faith of Abraham.
The State of Israel rejects or is uninterested in Jesus Christ, the Logos (Word, Reason, Order) made flesh. Hence, Israel’s constant propensity to sow disorder in the world.
The faith of Abraham of its essence looks to Jesus Christ. At one time, it could be said that the Jews had the true religion. But having rejected/ignored Christ, they are no longer sons of Abraham, unless, of course, they repent of their unbelief.
The primary meaning of “son of Abraham” is spiritual.
“A true Jew is one who is a Jew inwardly (spiritually)”. (Romans 2:29)
Catholics are spiritually Jews. Carnal Jewry is in a bad condition.
You freebase Hannity, don’t you?
It’s high time we Catholics unlearn what we know and begin to know, think, and act accordingly that the Zionist modern state of Israel is not the Israel of the Bible.
While the modern State of Israel claims a connection to biblical Israel, this theological and historical claim cannot justify its political existence or actions. The State of Israel, founded in 1948, is a modern, secular, nationalist project rooted in European settler colonialism, not a continuation of the Israel of the Bible. The majority of early Zionist leaders and immigrants were European Jews, primarily from Russia, Ukraine, and Poland, who arrived in waves beginning in 1882—long after biblical times, and with no legitimate title to the land then inhabited by indigenous Palestinian Arabs, both Muslim and Christian.
The biblical land promises cited by Zionists were fulfilled in the Old Testament period (see Joshua 21:43–45; Nehemiah 9:7–8). The return from exile was accomplished after the Babylonian captivity (Ezra–Nehemiah), and the prophetic promises now find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ and the Church. As St. Paul teaches, true Israel is not defined by blood or geography, but by faith in Christ (Romans 9:6–8; Galatians 3:29). Vatican II affirms that the Church is the new people of God (Lumen Gentium 9, 14), and the Catechism (CCC 781, 839–840, 877) teaches that while God’s covenant with the Jewish people is not revoked, their historical role has been transfigured in Christ.
Therefore, Zionist Israel has no divine or historical entitlement to the land, and no legitimate right to dispossess its native inhabitants. Its actions—including illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid policies—violate international law and moral principles. Like any nation-state, Israel is not above accountability. To claim a right to “defend itself” while perpetrating injustice against those resisting their dispossession is a perverse inversion of moral logic. The world must reject this false claim to legitimacy and stand with the oppressed in their struggle for justice and return.
For goodness sakes. God gave His Chosen People the land of Israel & originally that was a larger tract of real estate than it is today. He never revoked their ownership rights. They are an indigenous people returning to their homeland. And some never left in the first place. There has always been a Jewish presence in Israel.
The land grant given to the Jews was conditioned on their faithfulness to the covenant. Since they chose to be faithless, they no longer have a claim on the land. See also the curses enumerated in the Bible (in Deuteronomy I believe).
Then, too, there is the problem that many of those who are called Jews and who currently occupy and rule Israel are–as to their bloodlines–Khazarians, a Turko-Asiatic people which once had an empire in what is now called Ukraine.
God doesn’t revoke His promises Mr. Albrecht. If that were the case we’d all be in big trouble.
The Khazarian myth is an older antisemitic one and not based upon history or DNA research.
Seriously, as Christians we can do better in loving our older brethren in the faith of Abraham. Muslims are our brothers too but by another mother. We all worship the same God but understand Him differently.
Amen.
The modern state of Israel NOT THE Israel of the Bible. As pointed out: “The biblical land promises cited by Zionists were fulfilled in the Old Testament period (see Joshua 21:43–45; Nehemiah 9:7–8). The return from exile was accomplished after the Babylonian captivity (Ezra–Nehemiah), and the prophetic promises now find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ and the Church. As St. Paul teaches, true Israel is not defined by blood or geography, but by faith in Christ (Romans 9:6–8; Galatians 3:29). Vatican II affirms that the Church is the new people of God (Lumen Gentium 9, 14), and the Catechism (CCC 781, 839–840, 877) teaches that while God’s covenant with the Jewish people is not revoked, their historical role has been transfigured in Christ.”