Cardinal Pizzaballa and Patriarch Theophilos assessed the damage to the church's roof and comforted parishioners.

Israeli missiles struck a UNRWA-affiliated school in Gaza for the second time on Thursday, July 17. Large plumes of smoke can be seeing rising over central Gaza.he school was also targeted by Israeli forces on July 7.

Israel has refused to renew visas for the heads of at least three United Nations agencies in Gaza. The U.N. humanitarian chief blames it on their work trying to protect Palestinian civilians in the war-torn territory.

Meeting in Bogotá, Colombia, representatives of Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, and South Africa announced sanctions against Israel to cut the flow of weapons facilitating genocide and war crimes in Gaza.

On Tuesday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said: “One in 10 children screened in UNRWA medical facilities is malnourished.” He warned that child malnutrition is rising rapidly in Gaza amid severe shortages of food and medical supplies.

The United Nations’ special rapporteur for Gaza and the West Bank has called for global action to stop what she describes as “genocide” in Gaza.

Mourners attend the burial of Palestinian Christians Saad Salama and Foumia Ayyad at Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza July 17, 2025. The two parishioners were killed, according to medics, in an Israeli strike on the Holy Family Parish’s compound. (OSV News photo/Dawoud Abu Alkas, Reuters)

There were conflicting accounts from Palestinian and aid officials over what happened at the food distribution hub run by the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The Holy Family Church in Gaza was hit Thursday amid a new wave of Israeli bombings, leaving several people dead and injured, including the church’s pastor, Gabriel Romanelli.

Israeli officials have signaled they want the United Nations to remain the key avenue for humanitarian deliveries in Gaza, the deputy head of the World Food Programme said on Friday, noting the work of a controversial U.