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A mistaken Israeli strike sparks global outrage—while Hamas’s brutal persecution of Christians is ignored. The real threat to Gaza’s Christians isn't Israel. It’s Hamas.
Last week, Gaza’s only Catholic church – a safe haven for 450 Christians and Muslims – was damaged when an IDF tank shell inadvertently struck the church roof, scattering shrapnel across the courtyard. Despite prior warnings from church officials urging everyone to remain inside due to the active combat zone, three civilians outside in the courtyard were tragically killed.
Israel quickly clarified: The strike was accidental. The IDF never targets religious or civilian sanctuaries.
Yet a media storm quickly followed. The Guardian decried the incident as “barbarity,” framing it as part of a pattern of Israel “targeting civilians.” The Financial Times quoted skeptical Christians who cast doubt on Israel’s intentions.
Predictably, social media fanned the flames, portraying the incident as “deliberate terrorism” – an Israeli campaign to “systematically target innocent civilians.”
After Israel withdrew in 2005, Gaza’s Christian population plummeted from 5,000 – to just 650 today. Christians live in fear, targeted by systematic harassment, religious coercion, and violence.
This story refuses to fade from the headlines. Pope Leo has now joined the chorus, labeling the incident a “military attack” and condemning the “indiscriminate use of force.”
This scenario of attacking Israel by manipulating public opinion through misinformation is straight out of the Hamas PR playbook. Recall last year, the massive media uproar about an alleged “Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital that killed 500 civilians.” Evidence later proved the explosion came from a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket. But by then, the damage to Israel’s reputation was done.
With no independent Western journalists operating in Gaza, media inaccuracies emerge from an info-vacuum, where every casualty figure is funneled through the Hamas propaganda organ – the Gazan Health Ministry. Major news outlets then act as willing accomplices, amplifying the Hamas narrative as a “legitimate source.”
Every day seems to bring a new incident. This week, Hamas is claiming that 85 Gazans were killed by IDF troops near an aid distribution site. The IDF says it only fired warning shots. Hours later, the IDF published a video showing troops standing near Palestinians collecting food – with commanders instructing soldiers “Do not open fire.”
#خاص هكذا سقطت جميع أكاذيب حماس
في مشهد يهزّ القلب من ظهر اليوم،
جنود جيش الدفاع يقفون بثبات…
وعلى بُعد أمتار – اعداد من سكان غزة يتسلمون المساعدات الإنسانية التي دخلت قطاع غزة.لم تُطلق رصاصة.
القرار كان واضحًا: لا تطلقوا النار
اما ردة فعل الفلسطينيين؟ لم تكن خوفًا… بل… pic.twitter.com/HQQPK7t0Tw— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) July 20, 2025
To suggest that Israel is waging war on Christians is grotesquely false. Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the Christian population is growing – from 34,000 in 1948, to over 180,000 today.
In Israel, Christians enjoy full civil rights, religious freedom, and legal protection. They serve in parliament, the judiciary, and the army. Christian education and income levels rank among the highest in Israeli society.
Contrast this with Christians living in Gaza. After Israel withdrew in 2005, Gaza’s Christian population plummeted from 5,000 – to just 650 today. Christians live in fear, targeted by systematic harassment, religious coercion, and violence.
Palestinian gunmen firebombed the Gaza YMCA library; guards were kidnapped, and all 8,000 books were destroyed. The manager of Gaza’s only Christian bookstore was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered.
Hamas “morality committees” enforce Sharia law, pressuring Christians to conform or face harassment. Christian schools in Gaza are pressured to include Islamic indoctrination. Young women are subjected to forced conversion.
Gaza's Christian community is on the brink of extinction and Hamas bears sole blame.
Gaza's Christian community is on the brink of extinction and Hamas bears sole blame. Greek Orthodox Archbishop Alexios warned: “If things remain like this, there’ll be no Christians left in Gaza.”
The chilling jihadi slogan – “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people” – is a haunting reminder that after the Jews, Christians are next.
The plight of Gaza’s Christians mirrors a widespread “de-Christianization” in Muslim lands, where Christians face discriminatory laws and Christian towns have been wiped off the map. In Turkey, the Christian population declined a hundredfold over the last century. In Saudi Arabia, Christianity is plain illegal.
In Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Christians have fled due to church bombings and assassinations. In Egypt, Coptic Christians face mob violence, church burnings, forced conversions, and institutional discrimination.
After masked gunmen tried to abduct a church employee in Gaza, one Palestinian Christian leader warned: “Radical Islamic groups are waging a campaign to get rid of us – and no one seems to care.”
Across the Middle East, a long list of religious minorities suffer under Islamic extremism – Kurds, Bedouin, Alawites in Syria, Yazidis in Iraq, Bahahis in Iran, et al. this week, news reports are filled with shocking images of Druze communities in Syria being massacred by jihadists.
“The Islamic people want to kill us. That’s their principle and belief. They don’t want Christians in this country... That’s the reality.”
In the words of Reverend Tomey Dahoud, head of a West Bank church that was firebombed: “The Islamic people want to kill us. That’s their principle and belief. They don’t want Christians in this country... That’s the reality.”
Reading the news, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Israel is Christianity’s worst enemy. It’s all part of an effort to drive a wedge between Israel and the Christian community, further demonizing Israel and eroding its support in the West.
In the fog of war, mistakes happen. But deliberate distortion of truth is its own kind of violence. The media’s eagerness to repeat Hamas claims – without verification – has turned the media megaphone into a lethal weapon of its own.
Seems that the Jews care more about the Christians than many Christians do.
It's obvious that IDF can't make a mistake and that incident can easily snowball to worldwide outrage. Some of the journalist inThe Guardian are British muslims from south Asia or middle-east and it's understandable but the persecution of minority Christian who would conceal their identities is a "myth" to the world. Thank God, Israel admitted the miscalculation but will carry on with their objective of total victory
Why is it that whenever Christian clerics are interviewed on TV, they always publicly criticise Israel?
Your article clearly elucidates their real fate.
Of course, the mainstream media will never mention it.
Please try to circulate this article to international media editors.
A Christian’s best friend in the Middle East is a Jew or an Israeli.
The truth is that radical followers of Islam hate CHRISTIANS also. Islamic persecution of CHRISTAINS has gone on for centuries and is happening in parts of Asia not associated at all with the middle east. Buddhists are also being persecuted. It is not just a jewish/Islam problem. Certain followers of Islam hate all religions other than their own and persecute non Islamic people of faith regardless of their religion.
Which ever direction we watch, the things happening in this times contain the same patern off information management. Perhaps are the real dark ages, because the truth is darkened. The media is the main instrument of this darkness. Because it makes shine a false golden ligth uppon the islam and its armed branches while casting a shadow uppon Israel and Its People. I better stop here 'cause those wretched and vile people (hamas et. al) stirs my soul with violence...
This news must be shouted from the rooftops to the mainstream media! These truths are not shared; instead lies about Israel are spread. News from Gaza about casualties should not be believed unless another reputable source can confirm the numbers. Am Israel chai!
The statement “The IDF never targets religious or civilian sanctuaries” should be qualified “unless they are part of the terrorist infrastructure” - as the IDF has targeted structures which outwardly appear to be religious or civilian sanctuaries, but actually were Hamas strongholds.
Thank you for clarifying. Two takeaways that I understood from the Pope's message is that the hostages be immediately released followed by a ceasefire in Gaza, something Israel had demanded of Hamas at the outset but of course not what Hamas intended.
It might be helpful for the IDF to take back the narrative from Hamas PR and mainstream media by establishing a protective cordon around the Holy Family parish as a visible sign of Israel's protection of Christians in Gaza.
Of course Hamas and much of mainstream media will continue to speed hatred but facts are stubborn things: the visible presence of IDF soldiers guarding the church would be very symbolic and reinforce Israel's record of protection of all people of faith: Christian, Muslim and Jewish.
Thanks again for posting.
Thank you, Charles, can you send us the soldiers needed for this duty?
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
The despicable Mainstream Media will never run this story.
Am so grateful that you have written this!
Excellent!
Dear Rabbi Simmons, Yours is a voice of clarity. The media is culpable for the spreading of misinformation and the rise of anti-semitism. Please submit this article to papers in the U.S. in the hopes it will be picked up by other media sources -- not just Christian and Jewish ones.
Para descubrir claramente el montaje mediático contra Israel tras este "ataque", lo mejor es ver el vídeo dedicado a este tema en el canal de Youtube "Estrategias Militares", donde se ve claramente que apenas hubo unos desperfectos en el templo, un par de rasguños en una pierna del cura Romanelli, que camina perfectamente, y mucha manipulación fotográfica para la Propaganda.
Baruj Hashem!!!