Video shows moments before attack on parish in Gaza?

Several social media posts show a video of several people inside a church startled by an explosion outside. The footage is said to have been recorded recently, when the Holy Family Church, the only Catholic parish in Gaza, was hit in an Israeli attack.

In the video, people can be seen inside a church when an explosion is heard and some debris is seen near the door. The post, published the day after the attack on the Gaza church, states that it was captured "seconds before the Israeli army attacked the Holy Family parish in Gaza. As you can see, there are no tourists inside the church, only Catholics attending Mass." The text also states that there is "global" condemnation of the "terrorist attack against Christians."

The attack on the church in question actually took place on July 17th of this year—although Israel has said it was a "mistake." The church mentioned in the post is the same one shown in the images. However, this shared video is not from that moment.

A Google search for these images reveals the original video , which dates back to October 2023 and was released by the Middle East Council of Churches. The video describes it as "the moment a missile falls near the Holy Family Church in the Al Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza, where a group of families were praying." This attack on the church was confirmed at the time by the Vatican itself, with no injuries reported.

The church of the enclave's only Catholic parish has served as a refuge for hundreds of people since the conflict began and has received daily phone calls from Pope Francis since the war began—the last one coming two days before his death . Last week, the church was hit by an Israeli attack that left three dead and several injured, including the Argentine parish priest Gabriel Romanelli. Messages of condemnation and solidarity multiplied among political and religious leaders, and Pope Leo XIV called Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, while he was visiting the families of the victims and the affected community, to call the attack "unjustifiable" and condemn "the unnecessary massacre of innocents" in the conflict.

Pope calls for an end to the “unnecessary massacre” of innocents in Gaza

The widespread condemnation of this incident in Gaza prompted several justifications from Israel. After a preliminary investigation into the attack, the Israel Defense Forces said it discovered "that fragments of a projectile fired during operational activity in the area mistakenly hit the church." The IDF also assured that it would direct "its strikes exclusively at military targets" and make "every possible effort to mitigate damage to civilians and religious structures."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office also issued a statement expressing "deep regret that a stray munition struck the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza." The day after the attack, Netanyahu himself called Pope Leo XIV, according to information released by the Vatican, and in the conversation, the head of the Catholic Church reinforced the call for a ceasefire.

Conclusion

The images released are real and taken inside the Sagrada Família church in Gaza, which belongs to the enclave's only Catholic parish. Although the video was recorded during this conflict, which has been ongoing since October 2022, and even includes an explosion outside the building, the truth is that the footage released is from another incident near the church in October 2023. It was not recorded, as this publication suggests, during the attack that hit the church last week, leaving three dead and several injured. The video is real and taken in the same church that was now hit, but the images being shared are already two years old.

So, according to the Observer's rating system, this content is:

DECEIVER

In Facebook's rating system , this content is:

PARTIALLY FALSE : The content claims are a mix of accurate and inaccurate facts, or the main claim is misleading or incomplete.

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