As of this writing, no Christian leader had anything to say about Hezbollah's missile attack on a church.
When Muslims commit such crimes against Christians in the Gaza Strip, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and other countries, no one, including the Western media, takes notice. Why? It is not about Israel. No Jews are at fault.
Where were the pope and other Christian organizations, one wonders, when Christians living under the terrorist group Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, were being systematically targeted and persecuted?
How ironic, then, that the latest attempt to label Israel as a country that targets Christians coincided with the massacre in Nigeria perpetrated against Christians celebrating Christmas. More than 160 Christians were murdered in coordinated attacks by Islamist militant groups that took place between December 23-25.
Nigeria has been a hotbed for Christian persecution in recent years, with the country, in 2022, leading the world in Christians killed for their faith. When such atrocities are committed, we rarely hear the voices of those who claim to care about the well-being and safety of Christians around the world.
Worse, those who are ignoring the attacks on Christians are giving a green light to Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamists to destroy Christian holy sites and murder Christians.
On December 26, Iran's Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah attacked St. Mary's Greek Catholic Church in Iqrit, northern Israel. An anti-tank guided missile fired from Lebanon directly hit the church, severely wounding an 85-year-old civilian. Nine Israeli soldiers who rushed to rescue the churchgoer were then wounded by a second missile strike. Hezbollah boasted about the attack and posted a video of its missiles hitting the church.
The attack did not elicit any response from any major Christian organization in the West. By contrast, the pope was quick to denounce the killing of two Christian women in the Gaza Strip, falsely insinuating, however, that Israel was responsible.
Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter, Samar Kamal Anton, were reportedly killed in a shooting incident at the compound of the Holy Family Catholic Parish in the Gaza Strip. The pope claimed that the two women "were killed, and others were wounded by the shooters while they were going to the bathroom." Although he did not name the alleged shooters, the pope, in the article , echoing false claims by Hamas and other terrorist groups, was clearly pointing the finger of blame at Israel:
"At the Angelus prayer, the Pope said he continues to receive troubling news from Gaza, where unarmed civilians are the targets of bombings and gunfire."
As of this writing, no Christian leader had anything to say about Hezbollah's missile attack on a church.
When Muslims commit such crimes against Christians in the Gaza Strip, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and other countries, no one, including the Western media, takes notice. Why? It is not about Israel. No Jews are at fault.
It is just as likely that the Christian women were killed by Hamas or Islamic Jihad terrorists. In recent years, there has been increased evidence that Hamas not only uses mosques to launch attacks against Israel; Archbishop Alexis, a prominent Christian leader in the Gaza Strip revealed that during one of the recent rounds of fighting, Hamas terrorists used the church compound to launch rockets into Israel.
These are the same terrorists, by the way, who fired a rocket that struck a hospital in the Gaza Strip and rushed to falsely accuse Israel. After examining images of the damage at the point of impact at the Al-Ahli Hospital, a European military source ruled out the hypothesis that the attack was an air-to-ground strike by an Israeli fighter jet.
The source, as well as the US government, assessed that the explosion was caused by a Gazan rocket that had misfired on its way toward Israel. The source, in addition, questioned the death toll quickly announced by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, saying it was unlikely that 471 people died in the explosion; US intelligence estimated far fewer.
Earlier, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem had directly accused Israel, without any evidence, of killing the Christian mother and daughter. "They were shot in cold blood," the patriarchate claimed in a statement.
The Israeli military, however, refuted the claim that its troops had targeted the Greek Orthodox church in the Gaza Strip. Stressing that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) "do not target civilians, no matter their religion," the army said it had been contacted by church representatives about an incident in the Holy Family Parish, but "no reports of a hit on the church, nor civilians being injured or killed, were raised. A review of the IDF's operational findings support this."
Later, the army said its initial review found that "Hamas terrorists launched a rocket-propelled grenade at IDF troops from the vicinity of the church." The troops identified three people in the vicinity who were operating as "spotters" for Hamas and "guiding their attacks," and fired at the spotters, hitting them.
"While this incident occurred in the area where the two women were reportedly killed," it said, "the reports received [of the two women killed] do not match the conclusion of our initial review, which found that the IDF troops were targeting spotters in enemy lookouts."
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Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
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Pictured: St. Mary's, photographed on December 19, 2020. (Image source: Bukvoed/Wikimedia Commons)
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