The airstrike was a reminder of what everyone in Gaza City already knew. There was no safe shelter from Israeli bombs pounding the city.
Hundreds of Christians and Muslims were sheltering inside Saint Porphyrius church on Thursday evening when a missile brought down part of the complex, killing at least 16 people.
On Friday their bodies were laid out for a mass funeral in the church courtyard, wrapped in white sheets beside the rubble that killed them. Four were tiny children.
Dozens of men searched the collapsed building into the night, looking for survivors – and for bodies to retrieve the next day. Those on the lower floor had been crushed to death, one rescuer told Reuters, while people higher up had survived to face another day under attack.
“They felt they would be safe here,” a man cried out. “They came from under the bombardment and the destruction, and they said they would be safe here but destruction chased them.”
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which runs the church, said many of those inside at the time were women and children, and accused Israel of targeting churches.
“The Patriarchate emphasises that targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens … constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored,” it said in a statement.
The Israeli military said it had damaged “a wall of a church” when it hit a Hamas “command and control centre” nearby, but denied intentionally targeting Saint Porphyrius.
It provided a video that appeared to show a powerful missile hitting a building immediately adjacent to the church, and said the incident was under review.
Saint Porphyrius is the oldest active church in the city, dedicated to a bishop who destroyed the city’s pagan temples and converted the city to Christianity.
It was founded in the early 5th century, soon after his death, and he is buried in the church. The current building was started by crusaders who came through the city 700 years later, though it was heavily renovated later.
The Patriarchate said the church would keep offering shelter and support in Gaza City, despite Israeli orders for all civilians to head south, before an intense bombing campaign and ground offensive that is expected to start within days.
Some are unable to move or have to care for immobile relatives, while others fear airstrikes on the road or worry about having no place to stay.
The church is less than 300 metres from the al-Ahli hospital compound, where an explosion on Tuesday evening killed and injured hundreds of people who had fled there to try to escape Israeli airstrikes on their neighbourhood.
Israel blamed the attack on a failed rocket fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, and was backed by the US, which said between 100 and 300 people died in the hospital courtyard. Hamas-controlled local authorities said nearly 500 people died, and Hamas blamed an Israeli missile.
Gaza was already one of the most densely populated places in the world, with more than 2 million people crammed into just 365 square kilometres before the war. Israel’s evacuation order required 1 million people to move into half of the territory.
Homes and shelters are overcrowded already, with some refugees forced into tent cities set up by the UN, and there are still some airstrikes in the south.
On Thursday morning a strike on an apartment block in Khan Younis – where Israel urged civilians to take shelter – killed at least 12 people and wounded 80 others, who were brought to Nasser hospital, Dr Mohammed Qandeel told the Associated Press.
The second largest hospital in Gaza, Nasser is running out of fuel and has shut off power in most departments. The health ministry has begged gas stations to give remaining fuel supplies to hospitals.
They also had to leave two victims to die because they ran out of ventilators. “We can’t save more lives if this keeps happening, meaning more children … more women will die,” Qandeel said.
The intense bombing campaign has already damaged more than 140,000 homes, nearly a third of the entire housing stock in Gaza, and completely destroyed nearly 13,000, the UN said.
On Friday dozens more were destroyed in al-Zahra, slightly south of Gaza City. Residents of several apartment buildings said they received warning messages on their mobile phones while having breakfast, Reuters reported.
After 10 minutes a small drone message reinforced that message, then 20 minutes later F-16 planes brought down the entire buildings.
“Everything I ever dreamed of and thought that I have achieved was gone,” Ali, a resident of the district, said by phone. “In that apartment was my dream, my memories with my children, and my wife, was the smell of safety and love.”
