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Dozens may be trapped under rubble of Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza, bombed by Israel

This was reported on Friday by the Naftemporiki newspaper, citing sources in Gaza

ATHENS, October 20. /TASS/. Dozens of people may be trapped under the rubble of the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in the Gaza Strip, destroyed by Israeli bombing, the Naftemporiki newspaper reported on Friday citing Gaza sources.

The report says that the church was bombed by Israel late on Thursday.

"According to sources in the vicinity, dozens of Palestinians probably died under the rubble of one of Gaza’s oldest churches. The majority of those killed are parishioners, who sought refuge from air strikes in the historical building of the Church of Saint Porphyrius, and displaced persons from northern and southern districts of Gaza," the newspaper wrote.

"They [the sources] estimate that around 1,000 people found shelter in the church, school and other facilities," the report says.

Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in an exclusive comment to Greece’s ERT-1 television that around 400 people were inside the building at the time of the attack.

"They struck offices and the entrance to the monastery. They fired a missile, and the entire building collapsed. There were lots of Christians inside. Many of them were injured and some were killed," the archbishop said from the church.

"We will need bulldozers to see how many people are buried under the rubble," the priest added.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry of Palestine said the bombing of the Church of St. Porphyrius in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in southern Gaza killed two people - a girl child and a woman. Dozens of people received various injuries. The church building sustained serious damage, and a building next to it was destroyed.

The HAMAS movement descried the attack as a "yet another crime by Israel against religions and innocent civilians" and called upon the global community to condemn it.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7. Hamas regards the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and has started delivering strikes on that area and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.

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