The managing editor of The Babylon Bee has drawn widespread backlash in recent days for claiming all professing Roman Catholics in Gaza support Hamas.
“This won’t be easy for people to hear, but there are only about 200 professed Catholics still living in Gaza and they all support Hamas,” Joel Berry tweeted Saturday, days after a deadly Israeli shelling that hit the Holy Family Church, the city’s only Catholic church.
“True Christian faith still exists in Gaza, but it’s all underground. Anyone allowed by Hamas to practice openly is allowed to do so only because they aid and support the terror regime,” Berry added.
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True Christian faith still exists in Gaza, but it’s all underground. Anyone allowed by Hamas to practice openly is allowed to do so only because they aid and support the terror regime.
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) July 19, 2025
Three Christians were killed by an errant Israeli shell fragment last week, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.
The death count was confirmed by Catholic Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who serves as the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The Israelis apologized for shelling the church, which nearly took out the church’s cross atop its steeple.
“Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. We share the grief of the families and the faithful. We are grateful to Pope Leo for his words of comfort,” the Israeli government said in a statement.
“Israel is investigating the incident and remains committed to protecting civilians and holy sites.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly phoned President Donald Trump to apologize after Trump expressed outrage regarding Israeli attacks in southern Syria by calling Netanyahu a “madman.”
Berry’s post drew pushback from users on X, especially Catholics, some of whom called for a boycott of the Christian satire site for what they interpreted as slander against the dwindling number of Catholics in Gaza.
“Please join me and many other Catholics on X in permanently boycotting the Babylon Cringe. It’s corny anyway,” wrote author Sohrab Ahmari, who was born in Iran and serves as contributing editor of The Catholic Herald.
Christian author Rodd Dreher suggested Berry has “no idea” whether the dwindling number of Catholics in Gaza support Hamas. He went on to offer a personal anecdote from 25 years ago, when Dreher claims two Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem told him that “they can’t stand Israeli rule, but are TERRIFIED of Hamas governing them.”
“Any Gaza Christians who don’t back Hamas have to pretend, or be martyred,” Drehrer said.
“I don’t know about anyone else, but as a Catholic who supports and prays for my persecuted Christian brothers and sisters in Gaza and the Holy Land, I won’t be sharing or boosting anything produced by the Babylon Bee or its anti-Catholic, dispensationalist editors ever again,” wrote author and Federalist senior editor John Daniel Davidson.
Author and National Review senior writer Michael Brendan Dougherty suggested Berry lacked the expertise to make such a sweeping claim.
“Joel, when did you get back from your sociological study of Catholics in Gaza? Can we see the supporting interview source material you have for this claim?” he wrote.
Amid backlash, Berry pushed back against accusations that he was slandering Catholics in Gaza and declined to apologize.
“I love my Catholic brothers and sisters, I reject all the slander and twisting of what I say, and I’ll never stop calling out corruption and compromise in the church. That’s something godly Protestants and Catholics should unite around. I apologize for nothing. Go pound sand,” he wrote.
Berry suggested there are “evil forces trying to break up MAGA along racial and religious sectarian lines and it’s encouraging to know some people of wisdom and discernment see right through it. Don’t be intimidated by these people.”
The fierce debate over Berry’s tweet comes amid widespread condemnation of the Israeli government for some of its recent actions as the war in the region approaches its two-year anniversary.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist pastor who adheres to dispensationalism and typically supports Israel, condemned the country’s attack on the church and village in the West Bank, calling it “a crime against humanity and God.”
Some pointed out that far from supporting Hamas, Pizzaballa offered himself to Hamas in exchange for the children taken hostage in 2023.
