Pope Leo XIV has offered prayers for Gaza following the Israeli strike that killed two Christian women in the besieged Palestinian territory, according to Father Gabriel Romanelli, a priest at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City.
Romanelli, who is from Argentina, said in a YouTube video that Leo wrote to him after the strike. “Good morning, Father Gabriel. Ever since hearing the painful news about Maysa and Mary, I’ve been praying for them, their families, and everyone in Gaza. ‘How long, Lord?'” Leo said, according to a translation of Romanelli’s video from OSV News.
“Thank you for standing by the parish and so many people who only want to live in peace. God bless, with a warm embrace,” the pope added.
Maysa Abu Daoud and her daughter Mary al-Najjar were among five Palestinians killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment building in Gaza City early Saturday morning. They were members of Gaza’s St. Porphyrius Orthodox Church, where their funeral was held, but the mother and daughter had sheltered at the Holy Family Catholic Church before recently moving to the apartment building.
Both churches, which are located in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, have previously been attacked by the IDF. In July 2025, an Israeli tank shelled the Holy Family Church, killing three Christians and wounding several others, including Father Romanelli.
Romanelli said in his video that since the start of Israel’s genocidal war, a total of 62 members of Gaza’s tiny Catholic and Orthodox Christian community have been killed, including 25 killed by direct military violence.
“We have had 62 deaths: 62 Catholic and Orthodox Christians who have died in this war,” Romanelli said. “Of those 62 people, 25 have died violent deaths from bombardments or military snipers, and the majority died where they had taken refuge here, at Holy Family Church.”
Romanelli noted that frequent airstrikes and other attacks are “the reality for every resident of the Gaza Strip.” Since the so-called ceasefire deal was signed in October of last year, the IDF has constantly violated the agreement, killing at least 1,460 Palestinians in Gaza, according to numbers from Gaza’s Health Ministry.
“The people are exhausted; the people are asking for peace, for this war to truly end,” Romanelli said. “May these innocent victims from this part of the Holy Land, like Maysa and Mary and so many others, serve — united to the redeeming sacrifice of Christ — to grant us peace of soul, peace among families, peace in society, and peace throughout the world.”
