FACT CHECK: Video Claims To Show Catholic Church Bombed By Israel In Gaza
Israel bombed a Catholic Church that’s over 1800 years old in Palestine…
This was built 1725 years before the Rothschilds invented Israel..🇮🇱
— Pelham (@Resist_05) May 3, 2024
Verdict: Misleading
The church in the video is a Greek Orthodox church. While the compound and church were damaged in an October 2023 airstrike, the church has not been destroyed.
Fact Check:
Israel gave Hamas one week to sign a ceasefire deal, or it will invade the city of Rafah, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Social media users are sharing a video of a church, claiming it shows a Catholic church that was bombed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). One user wrote, “Israel bombed a Catholic Church that’s over 1800 years old in Palestine…This was built 1725 years before the Rothschilds invented Israel.”
This claim, though, is misleading. The church in the video is St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox church, which is not a Catholic church. The church is also not 1800 years old, with the first church building being built in 425 AD and the current church being built in the 1150s and renovated in 1856, according to Wikipedia.
St. Porphyrius’s compound was hit by an IDF airstrike Oct. 19, which destroyed a building. Palestinian officials said the strike killed 18 people, according to NPR.
Check Your Fact previously reported on claims that the IDF destroyed the church, such as the Oct. 19 strike. An IDF spokesperson told Check Your Fact at the time that it was targeting a Hamas command and control center in the area.
“The IDF can unequivocally state that the Church was not the target of the strike,” the spokesperson said at the time. The church’s Facebook page continues to show the church being used. (RELATED: Here’s What We Know About Israel And The Holy Family Catholic Parish In Gaza)
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem alleged in December 2023 that the IDF killed two women at the Catholic church in Gaza, the Holy Family Parish, and wounded several others, Check Your Fact previously reported. The patriarchate also accused the IDF of hitting a convent with rocket fire.
