On the night of October 20, 2023, the media reported that as a result of the air at the Israeli military was destroyed Ancient Orthodox Temple in the Gaza Strip. We decided to check if such statements are true.
Many Russian media that published news notes on this subject argued that the Church of St. Porfiry in Gaza was “destroyed” or “destroyed” by the Israeli military. Publications on sites have been published with such headings "RIA Novosti","Russian newspaper","Komsomolskaya Pravda","Ren-TV", Lenta.ru, "Arguments and facts" News.ru and other media. These texts clarified that we are talking about the "ancient", "one of the oldest" or "third in antiquity" of the Orthodox Church in the world.
A blow to the temple, as a result of which, according to representatives of the local Christian community, Died 17 people, condemned Jerusalem Patriarchate, however, in his statement it was not said about the complete destruction of the church.
First of all, a few words about the expressions used in relation to the Church of Holy Porphyry, such as "one of the oldest in the world." The first Christian temple at this place He was built In 425, but the preserved building was erected by crusaders in approximately the 1150-1160s. Most of the church was rebuilt in 1856, and only a little survived in it to this day since the 12th century.
On the first video, taken off at night, you can see ruins, among which large concrete fragments are noticeable. Such designs are uncharacteristic for the XII or the XIX century. In the background, the minaret of the nearest mosque Katib al-Vilaya guesses, a ray of light in several frames grabs cypress from the darkness, growing almost exactly on the line connecting the minaret with the operator. 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 structure located a little south.
Photos And video, filmed by the day of October 20, confirm this hypothesis. It is logical to assume that with such a large -scale destruction of the neighboring building, the southern, closest wall of the temple could suffer, but at least the western part of this wall is in satisfactory condition.
We could not find later photographs of the eastern part of the southern wall, but on one of the frames of the “day” video you can see the intact roof over the altar, which indirectly indicates a non -astrofid state and the southern altar wall.
Let's get back to the destroyed modern building. Its eastern facade, judging by the 2010 photographs available in Google Maps, taken by Mohammad Massri, decorated with a small niche with a stone cross and an inscription carved in stone, which in Arabic means: “The Church of St. Porfiry, the Arab Orthodox community of Gaza.”
In the western facade, in the photo of October 20, 2023, you can see a sign with the logo, as we managed to find out, the Arab Orthodox scout organization of Gaza.
Representative of the Israeli Defense Army (IDF) in the commentary AFP declaredthat on the night of October 20, the military aircraft was amazed at the command post, which was used to apply attacks on the territory of Israel. “As a result of the impact of the IDF, the wall of the church in this area was damaged. We know reports about the victims. The incident is investigating, ”the armed forces specified.
Thus, it cannot be said that the IDF on the night of October 20 destroyed the Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza. At the same time, a building belonging or at least directly related to the community was seriously damaged. The application of the airstrike on the command of Hamas (whether he was actually there, we cannot check) near the Church confirmed the Israeli military who promised to conduct an investigation into the incident.
Messages about the destruction of the Church of St. Porfiry as a result of an Israeli blow appeared earlier, in the first days of the operation, begun in Israel in response to the attack of the Hamas militants on October 7. Then, a refutation of this information appeared on the official page of the temple on Facebook. “Our beloved brothers in the Lord, we inform you that the Church of St. Porfria in Gaza is in the best state. The news that was published about it are just rumors, nothing more, ” - It was said In a statement of October 9.
Photo on the cover: screenshot
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