CHURCH leaders visited Gaza today after Israel struck the strip’s only Catholic church on Thursday, an attack that killed three people and wounded ten, including a priest who had developed a close friendship with the late Pope Francis.

The religious delegation to Gaza included two Patriarchs from Jerusalem, Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III.

The rare visit aimed to express the “shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land,” a statement said.

Israel has heavily restricted access to Gaza since the start of the war, though church leaders have entered on previous occasions, usually to mark major holidays.

They visited the Holy Family Catholic Church, whose compound was damaged by the shelling.

They were also organising convoys carrying hundreds of tons of food, medical supplies and other equipment to the territory, which experts say has been pushed to the brink of famine by the Israeli military’s wanton destruction, and the evacuation of those wounded in the church strike.

Pope Leo XVI renewed his call for negotiations to bring an end to the 21-month slaughter in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today.

The Pope “expressed again his concern over the dramatic humanitarian situation for the population in Gaza, with children, the elderly and the sick paying the most heartbreaking price,” the Vatican said in a statement.

The Vatican said the pope had also received an update on the condition of Reverend Gabriel Romanelli, the resident priest at the church, who was lightly wounded. The priest had regularly spoken by phone with Pope Francis, who died in April, telling the pontiff about the struggles faced by civilians in Gaza.

Israeli strikes on Gaza killed at least 35 people today. One such attack hit a home in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing four members of the same family, according to morgue records at Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies.

Footage of the aftermath of the strike showed people digging through the rubble in search of remains.

“They are still under the rubble,” said Belal Abu Sahloul, a relative of those killed. 

“Until now, we are unable to get them out, even in small pieces.”

At the hospital, a mother held the hand of her daughter, who had been killed in one of the other strikes and placed in a body bag. 

Nearly 18,000 Palestinian children have been killed since the start of the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Nasser Hospital said another three people were killed while heading toward an aid site run by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed US contractor.

A spokesperson for the foundation said there was no violence at its sites overnight and that crowds were “docile.”

Since the group’s operations began in late May, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers while on roads heading to the sites, according to witnesses and health officials.