(LifeSiteNews) — The White House stated that President Donald Trump’s reaction to this morning’s Israeli military strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza was “not positive” and prompted a call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At around 10:20 a.m. local time on Thursday, the Holy Family Catholic Church compound “was struck by the Israeli army,” killing at least three and injuring nine others, “including one in critical condition and two in serious condition,” according to a statement from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
During a White House press briefing today, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about Trump’s reaction to the bombing and responded, “It was not a positive reaction. He called Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning to address the strikes on that church in Gaza. And I understand the Prime Minister agreed to put out a statement.”
WHITE HOUSE
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has revealed that Donald Trump called Benjamin Netanyahu after today’s attack on Holy Family Catholic Church
Trump was not impressed and it appears as though Netanyahu only agreed for the IDF to release a statement after the call pic.twitter.com/8ASdFEJv77
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) July 17, 2025
She went on to claim that “it was a mistake by the Israelis to hit that Catholic Church. That’s what the Prime Minister relayed to the President. And you should look at the Prime Minister’s statement on that.”
But according to The Pillar, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, expressed doubts that the strike on the church was a mistake.
“What we know for sure is that a tank, the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this, they hit the church directly, the Church of the Holy Family, the Latin Church.”
“We don’t have complete information about what has happened in Gaza today because the communication in Gaza is not that simple,” the Franciscan cardinal said.
However, the Catholic outlet went on to report that “sources close to the patriarchate’s chancery” told them “Church authorities were considering the possibility that the tank attack” upon the church was “a deliberate act of retaliation” for Church authorities speaking out on Monday against violent terrorist attacks by Israeli settlers against the Christian town of Taybeh in the West Bank.
READ: Holy Land bishops urge Christians worldwide to help defend faithful from Israeli settler attacks
The statement by Christian authorities in the Holy Land charged Israeli authorities with facilitating and enabling the attacks upon Christians and other Palestinians in the occupied territories.
“We call for an immediate and transparent investigation into why the Israeli police did not respond to emergency calls from the local community and why these abhorrent actions continue to go unpunished,” the prelates demanded.
“Furthermore, we ask diplomats, politicians, and church officials worldwide to provide a prayerful and outspoken voice for our ecumenical community in Taybeh, that their presence may be secured and that they can live in peace to worship freely, grow crops without danger, and live in a peace that seems to be in far too short of supply,” the statement said.
As this attack on Holy Family Catholic Church comes strong on the heels of the Holy Land prelates’ highly visible statement protesting Israeli officials’ enabling of settler terrorist attacks against Christians in the West Bank, so too on February 14 the bishops issued a strong statement indirectly condemning Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
Just five days later, they were forced to decry the city of Jerusalem’s “unjust foreclosure” of a property owned by the Orthodox Armenian Patriarchate that the prelates judged to be “morally unacceptable,” and “a clear attempt” to diminish the Christian presence in the Holy Land.
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