The President condemns the bombing of the Latin Monastery Church in Gaza and offers his condolences to Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa in a phone call.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Israeli occupation forces' bombing of the Latin Monastery Church in Gaza on Friday. He also offered his condolences in a phone call to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, over the killing of three citizens and the wounding of more than 10 others in the Israeli occupation's bombing of the church on Thursday, which was also sheltering 600 displaced people.

His Eminence stressed the importance of preserving holy sites and working to protect and strengthen the authentic Christian presence in Palestine.

The President also spoke by phone with the church's pastor, Gabriel Romanelli, to check on his health after the injury he sustained as a result of the occupation's bombing.

His Eminence also addressed, alongside His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista, His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III, Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, in the presence of Father Gabriel Romanelli, Pastor of the Holy Family Church for the Latins, Father Silas Habib, Pastor of the Greek Orthodox Church, Father Youssef Asaad, Assistant Pastor of the Holy Family Church in Gaza, the Head of the Churches Committee in Gaza, the Medical Director of the Baptist Hospital, Chairman of the Council of Church Agents Maher Ayyad, and a group of Christians, reassuring them of their conditions, stressing that this calamity that has befallen our people and our land must end with the end of the aggression and the end of the occupation.

The President considered this targeting an extremely dangerous development in the series of escalating attacks on Christian and Islamic holy sites and the entire Palestinian people, and reveals a systematic policy of desecration targeting civilians and places of worship simultaneously, without any regard for international conventions or humanitarian and religious values.

His Excellency called on the international community and mediators to accelerate and sustain the ceasefire, release hostages and prisoners, allow the entry of aid, ensure the complete withdrawal of the occupation forces, allow the State of Palestine to assume its full responsibilities in the Gaza Strip, assist the displaced to return to their areas, provide them with basic services, and engage in the reconstruction process and a political process that ends the occupation of the entire Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions.