Pope Mourns Christian Mother and Daughter Killed by Israel After Leaving Church Shelter in Gaza
*Maysa Abu Daoud and her daughter Mary had moved from a church refuge into a rented flat. An Israeli strike killed them alongside another mother and daughter and a young man, leaving a 14-year-old mourning two generations of his family.*
Pope Leo XIV has asked “How long, Lord?” after an Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian Christian mother and daughter who had recently left a church shelter in Gaza to try to rebuild their lives.
Maysa Khader Ibrahim Abu Daoud, 55, and Mary Hafez Michel Najjar, 36, were among five people killed in the early hours of 3 October when a residential building in western Gaza City was struck. Another mother and daughter also died. The attack came almost a year into a ceasefire that has reduced the scale of fighting without ending the killing.
“Good morning, Fr. Gabriele. 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?’” the Pope wrote to Fr Gabriel Romanelli, pastor of Holy Family, Gaza’s only Catholic parish.
“Thank you for standing by the parish and so many people who only want to live in peace. God bless, with a warm embrace.”
Romanelli read the personal message during his video update on 4 October. Its lament, echoing Psalm 13, followed the women’s burial at Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, where relatives and friends had gathered only hours after their deaths.
Both women were Greek Orthodox. During the war, they had sheltered at the Catholic Holy Family compound, which has provided refuge to people displaced from their homes. According to George Anton, the Latin Patriarchate’s director of operations in Gaza, they had recently rented an apartment in the hope of recovering some stability.
They had also helped those around them. Ramzi Khouri, chairman of Palestine’s Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs, described their contribution to the community that had sheltered them.
“Maysa and her daughter Mary had devoted their time to serving parishioners and displaced people sheltering at the Holy Family Church in Gaza, providing support and assistance amid the devastating humanitarian conditions facing the Gaza Strip,” he said.
For Mary’s son, Fouad al-Najjar, the strike meant losing his mother and grandmother on the same night. He is 14.
“Today is essentially the worst day of my life. I lost my mother and my grandmother today,” he said.
Muslim friends joined Christian mourners at the funeral. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate called for an end to bombardment and protection for civilians, while Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, offered condolences to the families and Gaza’s Christian community.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights places the attack at approximately 1.25am, when Israeli warplanes hit the ground floor of the al-Asalah building. Its field researchers recorded five deaths and around ten injuries, with the wounded taken to al-Shifa Medical Complex.
The other women killed were Halloum Mahmoud Mohammed al-Bobo, 84, and her daughter Yasmin, 48, an academic at the University of Palestine. The fifth victim was Bilal Ali Khalil Odah, whom the centre identified as 20.
Yasmin taught in the university’s multimedia department and had previously headed its Multimedia Technology Department. Her academic biography recorded three master’s degrees spanning information systems, computing and sustainable development. In 2021, it listed her as studying for a doctorate in computer science and artificial intelligence.
Her death, alongside her elderly mother, brought another loss to Gaza’s university community.
Israel said an overnight operation had targeted Ali al-Amoudi, a senior Hamas political official whom its military described as the group’s most senior figure inside Gaza. The military alleged that he was staying in an apartment used for militant activity within a residential building and said it had taken measures to reduce civilian harm.
Israeli reporting linked that operation to the strike that killed the five Palestinians, although Reuters initially said it could not immediately establish whether the military statement referred to the same attack. On 5 October, Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said al-Amoudi had survived. That account has not been independently confirmed.
The killings took place as the US-brokered ceasefire of October 2025 approached its first anniversary. By the weekend of the strike, Gaza’s health ministry reported that more than 1,440 Palestinians had been killed since the truce was announced. The reported death toll since October 2023 had exceeded 74,200.
For Gaza’s Christians, those losses are being borne by an exceptionally small community. Figures attributed to Pizzaballa in September put the number remaining at 541, compared with 1,017 before the war. Deaths and departures have reduced the community to little more than half its former size.
Romanelli said 62 Catholic and Orthodox Christians had died during the war, including 25 killed by bombardment or military snipers. The overall figure includes deaths other than those directly caused by violence.
“There is not a single safe place in Gaza,” he said, describing the danger facing people in their homes, in the streets and in their churches.
The congregation has already experienced that danger repeatedly. On 19 October 2023, an Israeli strike hit the Saint Porphyrius compound, killing 18 people sheltering there. Almost three years later, the church hosted the funeral of Maysa and Mary.
On 16 December 2023, another Christian mother and daughter, Nahida and Samar Anton, were killed inside the Holy Family compound. The Latin Patriarchate said an Israeli sniper shot them as they walked towards the sisters’ convent, with one killed while trying to carry the other to safety. Israel denied responsibility.
Then, on 17 July 2025, Israeli fire struck Holy Family itself. The Latin Patriarchate reported three deaths and nine wounded, including Romanelli, who sustained light injuries. Israel said shell fragments had hit the church by mistake, and Benjamin Netanyahu expressed regret.
The Patriarchate condemned that attack while placing the church’s suffering within the wider devastation: “this tragedy is not greater or more terrible than the many others that have befallen Gaza.”
Romanelli made the same connection after the latest deaths, saying such attacks were “the reality for every resident of the Gaza Strip”.
The Pope’s message continues a close relationship between the Vatican and the parish. Pope Francis had made regular evening calls to Holy Family during the war, asking about those sheltering there. Leo has also spoken to Romanelli repeatedly. The parish’s work has included distributing food and water, maintaining a pharmacy and supporting children, older people and the sick.
Yet the church’s efforts to help families resume ordinary life remain vulnerable to the conditions outside its walls.
Speaking ahead of the third anniversary of 7 October, Pizzaballa warned that reduced fighting had not brought adequate recovery.
“Reconstruction has not begun, living conditions have not improved; indeed, in some respects, they have even worsened,” he said.
He also expressed concern about the approaching winter and the exposure of families still living in tents.
There had recently been a modest opening for Gaza’s children. On 22 September, the Latin Patriarchate announced that its school had reopened for the 2026–27 academic year, welcoming 1,005 pupils from kindergarten through the final year of secondary education. Seventy-seven teachers had returned to work.
The school still faced shortages of furniture, stationery and basic materials, and was developing activities to support children and teachers psychologically after years of disruption.
“Without providing education to children, how can there be hope?” Pizzaballa had asked.
Within days, the same church community was mourning Maysa and Mary. Their attempt to move from a communal refuge into a home of their own had ended with another funeral.
“The people are exhausted; the people are asking for peace, for this war to truly end,” Romanelli said.
Fouad, having lost his mother and grandmother, described what those years had meant to him: “For almost three years, we have been living through the same destruction, the same grief and the same war.”
By 6 October 2026, Israeli forces had killed at least 1,462 Palestinians in Gaza since the October 2025 ‘ceasefire’, including more than 300 children, according to Palestinian health figures and United Nations reporting.
Sources and reporting notes
Reporting checked on 6 October 2026. Media credits are collected here; quotations in the article identify their speakers.
Papal message and Romanelli’s account: Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News, published by National Catholic Reporter, 5 October 2026. The English wording of the Pope’s message, Khouri’s tribute and Romanelli’s quotations follows this report, supplied with the commission. Vatican News, 5 October, corroborates the message and supplies Pizzaballa’s remarks on reconstruction and winter.
The rented apartment and population figures: Sanad Sahelia, ACI MENA/EWTN, 3 October 2026, quoting George Anton. The figures of 541 Christians remaining and 1,017 before the war are attributed to Pizzaballa’s September remarks; they describe deaths and departures combined.
Names, ages and strike details: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights field report, 3 October 2026. Ages in this feature follow PCHR. English transliterations vary; Mary appears under both Najjar and Abu Daoud. PCHR gives Bilal’s age as 20; some other reporting gives 21.
Fouad’s funeral testimony: Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas, Reuters, updated 3 October 2026. This supplies his account of losing his mother and grandmother, Muslim friends’ attendance and the initial qualification about linking the strike to Israel’s announced operation.
Fouad’s age and closing quotation; Yasmin’s academic background: Mohamed Majed and Rania Abushamala, Anadolu, 3 October, updated 4 October 2026. The report draws on university records and identifies Yasmin as a lecturer and former department head. Her doctoral studies are dated to the 2021 biography; the feature does not assert that she completed that doctorate.
Church confirmation and funeral: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, 3 October 2026 and Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, 3 October 2026. The Latin statement describes the night of 2 October; the field report places the strike after midnight on 3 October.
Israel’s stated target and Hamas’s subsequent claim: Emanuel Fabian, The Times of Israel, 3 October 2026; 5 October report of Ghazi Hamad’s statement to Al Arabiya. Israel’s military-use allegation and Hamas’s survival claim are attributed, not independently established findings.
Wider casualty figures and ceasefire context: RTÉ/AFP, 3 October 2026. Figures are the Gaza health ministry totals reported that weekend, not a claim to be the latest totals on 6 October.
Saint Porphyrius attack in October 2023: Peter Pinedo/CNA, Catholic World Report, 23 October 2023.
Nahida and Samar Anton: Latin Patriarchate statement reproduced by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, 16 December 2023; The Times of Israel, 21 December 2023, for Israel’s denial.
Holy Family strike in July 2025: Latin Patriarchate statement, 17 July 2025; The Times of Israel, 18 July 2025, for Israel’s explanation and Netanyahu’s response.
Vatican contact and parish relief work: Vatican News, 16 September 2025.
School reopening: Miral Atik, Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, 22 September 2026, including pupil and teacher numbers, shortages, psychological support plans and Pizzaballa’s quotation.
