Macron expresses 'great concern' after 2 parishioners killed in Israeli attack on Gaza church

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday condoled the killing of two parishioners in an Israeli sniper attack at Holy Family Parish in Gaza last week, Anadolu Agency reports.

In a phone call with Latin Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Macron expressed “support and solidarity with the Latin Catholic communities in the Holy Land,” according to a statement by the French presidency.

He mentioned his “deep concern about the dramatic situation in the Latin parish of Gaza, where hundreds of civilians of all faiths have found refuge,” the statement said.

It added that Macron reaffirmed France’s “loyalty to its commitments, and in particular, to the special role of protection of a number of Christian communities, exercised through the Consulate General of France in Jerusalem.”

“This responsibility, inherited from history, will be fully assumed in the face of the contemporary risks weighing on these communities,” Macron said.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October, killing at least 20,424 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 54,036 others, according to health authorities in the enclave.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory’s housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.

READ: Israeli bombing is indiscriminate, targets both Muslims and Christians, says Palestinian president