Mourners at Gaza's Saint Porphyrius church bury mother and daughter killed in Israeli strike

On Saturday, the ancient Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza City's Old City held a funeral for two of its own. Maysa Abu Daoud, 56, and her daughter Mary al-Najjar, 36 — Palestinian Christians who had devoted themselves to helping displaced families sheltering at the Holy Family Church — were killed when Israeli missiles struck their apartment building in the Rimal neighbourhood in the early hours of the morning. Gaza health and civil defence officials said at least five Palestinians, including four women, were killed in the strike at about 1.30 am local time. Two missiles hit the building directly, starting a fire and reducing part of it to rubble. Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said the building was struck without prior warning. Al-Shifa hospital received the bodies at dawn. "We were asleep and suddenly heard continuous strikes and heavy explosions. The children woke up startled and started running and screaming," witness Ahmed al-Dahdouh told Reuters. "We ran out and found that our neighbour's house was struck... We started to pull them out, they were scattered under the rubble." Al-Dahdouh, a Muslim, added: "These are our Christian brethren, who are not involved in anything, they are peaceful people, and everybody loves them." At the funeral, mourners — friends, relatives, and members of Gaza's tiny Christian community, joined by Muslim neighbours — filled the church with prayers and hymns. Fourteen-year-old Fouad al-Najjar, who lost his mother and his grandmother in the strike, appealed for an end to the war. "Today is essentially the worst day of my life," he said. "We are exhausted by this war and have endured so much. For almost three years, we have been living through the same destruction, the same grief and the same war." The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem mourned the women, and Palestine's Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs called their deaths a painful loss for the church and its parishioners. This was not the first time Gaza's churches have been struck. In October 2023, an attack on the Saint Porphyrius Church compound killed at least 18 people sheltering there. Two months later, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said an Israeli sniper shot dead a woman and her daughter inside the Holy Family parish compound. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Saturday's strike. Israel says Hamas has been rearming and launching attacks in violation of the ceasefire, and has stepped up strikes on the group in recent weeks; Hamas denies this and accuses Israel of undermining the Gaza peace deal. Gaza health officials estimate at least 1,400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since last October's US-brokered ceasefire — a ceasefire that was supposed to end the killing, not merely slow its announcement. Maysa and Mary were buried in the church they had served. The missiles did not distinguish between Muslim and Christian, combatant and civilian, the guilty and the grieving. The funeral did not either — it gathered them all, in sorrow.