On the night of October 20, 2023, the media reported that as a result of an airstrike by the Israeli military was destroyed An ancient Orthodox church in the Gaza Strip. We decided to check whether such statements are true.
Many Russian media outlets that published news items on this topic claimed that the Church of St. Porphyry in Gaza was “destroyed” or “destroyed” by the Israeli military. There were publications with similar headlines on the websites “RIA Novosti", "Russian newspaper", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Ren-TV», Lenta.ru, "Arguments and facts", News.ru and other media. These texts specified that we were talking about the “most ancient,” “one of the oldest,” or “third oldest” Orthodox Church in the world.
The attack on the temple, as a result of which, according to representatives of the local Christian community, died 17 people, convicted Jerusalem Patriarchate, however, his statement did not indicate the complete destruction of the church.
First of all, a few words about the expressions used in relation to the Church of St. Porphyry like “one of the oldest in the world.” The first Christian temple on this site was built in 425, but the surviving building was erected by the Crusaders around 1150–1160. Most of the church was rebuilt in 1856, and only a little remains from the 12th century.
On the first video, filmed at night, you can see ruins, among which large concrete fragments are noticeable. Such designs are uncharacteristic of either the 12th or 19th centuries. The minaret of the nearby Katib al-Wilaya mosque can be seen in the background; a beam of light in several frames snatches out of the darkness a cypress tree growing almost exactly on the line connecting the minaret with the cameraman. This makes it possible to determine the shooting point and establish that the destroyed building is not the Church of St. Porphyry, but a modern building located a little to the south.
Photos And video, filmed on the afternoon of October 20, confirm this hypothesis. It is logical to assume that with such large-scale destruction of the neighboring building, the southern wall of the temple closest to it could also have been damaged, but at least the western part of this wall is in satisfactory condition.
We were unable to find later photographs of the eastern part of the southern wall, but in one of the frames of the “daytime” video you can see an intact roof above the altar, which indirectly indicates the non-catastrophic condition of the southern altar wall.
Let's return to the destroyed modern building. Its eastern façade, according to a 2010 Google Maps photograph taken by Mohammad Massri, features a small niche with a stone cross and an inscription carved in stone that translates from Arabic as “Church of Saint Porphyry, Arab Orthodox Community of Gaza.”
On the western façade, in the photograph dated October 20, 2023, you can see a sign with the logo of, as we found out, the Arab Orthodox Scout Organization of Gaza.
A representative of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a comment to AFP statedthat on the night of October 20, a military aircraft hit a command post, which was used to launch attacks on Israeli territory. “As a result of the IDF strike, the wall of a church in the area was damaged. We are aware of reports of casualties. The incident is being investigated,” the armed forces clarified.
Thus, it cannot be said that the IDF destroyed the Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza on the night of October 20th. At the same time, a building belonging to, or at least directly connected with, the community was seriously damaged. An airstrike on a Hamas command post (we cannot verify whether it was actually there) near the church was confirmed by the Israeli military, who promised to investigate the incident.
Reports of the destruction of the Church of St. Porphyrios as a result of an Israeli strike had appeared before, in the early days of the operation launched by Israel in response to an attack by Hamas militants on October 7. Then a refutation of this information appeared on the temple’s official Facebook page. “Our beloved brothers in the Lord, we inform you that the Church of St. Porphyry in Gaza is in the best condition. The news that has been published about her are just rumors, nothing more,” it was said in a statement dated October 9.
Cover photo: screenshot
- bellingcat. Identifying Possible Crater from Gaza Hospital Blast
- Did the Israeli Defense Minister say that the country's authorities have abolished all rules of war?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
