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Two of the most senior Christian leaders in the Holy Land travelled to Gaza on Friday after Israeli fire killed three at the Palestinian territory’s only Catholic church, provoking international condemnation.The rare visit came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “deeply regrets” the strike on the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and blamed a “stray” round.Israel strictly controls access to the territory, where the civil defence agency on Friday reported that further Israeli strikes killed at least 14 Palestinians across Gaza.The Catholic Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and his Greek Orthodox counterpart, Theophilos III, headed an “ecclesiastical delegation” to meet local Christians following Thursday’s strike, the churches said.The delegation expressed “the shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land and their concern for the community of Gaza”, the Latin Patriarchate said.”During their stay, the delegation will meet with members of the local Christian community, offer condolences and solidarity, and stand alongside those affected by the recent events,” it added.The Greek Orthodox Jerusalem Patriarchate called it a “powerful expression” of church unity and solidarity.- ‘Stop the needless slaughter’ – The clerics last week travelled to the occupied West Bank with diplomatic representatives from more than 20 countries after an attack on an ancient Byzantine-era church blamed on Israeli settlers.Both churches said the Gaza visit had been facilitated with the help of aid agencies and also involved the delivery of food supplies and emergency medical equipment.In Italy, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the delegation arrived with 500 tonnes of aid for local civilians.”The Italian government calls on Israel to stop military actions and to fully guarantee the safety of the two envoys in their important mission,” he said in a statement.Pope Leo XIV, the leader of the world’s Catholics, said he was “deeply saddened” by the strike on the church, where hundreds of displaced people were sheltering, including children and those with special needs.His predecessor, Pope Francis, kept in regular contact with parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli and repeatedly called for an end to the Gaza war, which has created a humanitarian crisis for the people living there.Romanelli was one of 10 people injured in the strike and was seen with bandages on his leg.The Vatican said the pope called Pizzaballa on Friday morning to ask about the situation in Gaza and the condition of Romanelli and the other wounded.”He expressed his support and affection to the entire community gathered around the parish and those suffering from the violence, and reiterated his intention to do everything possible to stop the needless slaughter of innocents,” a statement read.- ‘Mistake’ -Both Italy and France called the strike “unacceptable” while US President Donald Trump called Netanyahu after having “not a positive reaction” on hearing about it, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.”It was a mistake by the Israelis to hit that Catholic church, that’s what the prime minister relayed to the president,” she told reporters.The Jerusalem churches, which have jurisdiction for Catholics and members of the Greek Orthodox church across Israel and the Palestinian territories, said they had ensured the medical evacuation of those injured.One was in a critical condition and two others were seriously wounded, the Jerusalem Patriarchate said.Out of the Gaza Strip’s population of more than two million, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.Israel’s military maintains that it does not deliberately target churches and religious sites.But the Jerusalem Patriarchate said there had been “repeated assaults on Christian holy sites in Gaza”.The war was sparked by Palestinian military group Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s military retaliation has killed at least 58,667 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

Armed tribes supported by Syria’s Islamist-led government clashed with Druze fighters outside Sweida Friday a day after government troops withdrew from the Druze-majority city, the warring parties and a monitoring group said.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported “clashes west of Sweida pitting tribal fighters and Bedouin supported by the authorities on one side, against Druze fighters on the other”.Combatants on both sides confirmed the clashes and AFP correspondents reported hearing exchanges of fire.Syrian government forces withdrew from Sweida province on Thursday after coming under heavy bombardment by Israel.The pullout from Syria’s Druze heartland came on the orders of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who said mediation by the United States and others had helped avert a “large-scale escalation” with Israel.Nearly 600 people have been killed in Sweida province since Sunday, according to the Observatory, as Druze fighters clashed with Sunni Bedouin tribes, who were later joined by government forces.A ceasefire took effect on Thursday, but Sharaa’s office accused Druze groups of violating the agreement.Tribal fighters gathered around Sweida on Friday to reinforce the Bedouin, positioning themselves in several villages near the city.AFP correspondents heard intermittent gunfire and explosions and saw smoke rising from the villages.Druze fighters told AFP they were responding to the sources of fire.Anas al-Enad, a tribal chief from the central city of Hama, said he and his men had made the journey to the village of Walgha, northwest of Sweida, because “the Bedouin called for our help and we came to support them”.

Syrian troops on Thursday pulled out of the Druze heartland of Sweida on the orders of the Islamist-led government, following days of deadly clashes that killed nearly 600 people, according to a war monitor.The southern province has been gripped by deadly sectarian bloodshed since Sunday, with hundreds reportedly killed in clashes pitting Druze fighters against Sunni Bedouin tribes and the army and its allies.The city of Sweida was desolate on Thursday, AFP correspondents on the ground reported, with shops looted, homes burnt and bodies in the streets.”What I saw of the city looked as if it had just emerged from a flood or a natural disaster,” Hanadi Obeid, a 39-year-old doctor, told AFP.Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in a televised speech that community leaders would resume control over security in Sweida “based on the supreme national interest”, after the deployment of government troops on Tuesday fuelled the intercommunal bloodshed and prompted Israeli military intervention.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 594 people had been killed in clashes in Sweida province since Sunday.The UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, said that “nearly 2,000 families have been displaced” by the violence across the province.Israel had hammered government troops with air strikes during their brief deployment in Sweida and also struck targets in and around the capital Damascus, including the military headquarters, warning that its attacks would intensify until the government pulled back.The Observatory reported that three people were killed in Damascus by the Israeli strikes.Syria’s state-run news agency SANA later reported the first Israeli attack on the area since government forces withdrew, with strikes on the outskirts of Sweida.The Syrian presidency meanwhile accused Druze fighters in Sweida of violating the ceasefire that led to the withdrawal of government forces.In a statement, the presidency accused “outlaw forces” of violating the agreement through “horrific violence” against civilians.The presidency also warned against “continued blatant Israeli interference in Syria’s internal affairs, which only leads to further chaos and destruction and further complicates the regional situation”.- Promise of ‘protection’ -Sharaa, whose Islamist-led interim government has had troubled relations with minority groups since it toppled longtime president Bashar al-Assad in December, pledged to protect the Druze, a religious minority.”We are keen on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people, as they are under the protection and responsibility of the state,” said Sharaa, whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham movement was once linked to Al-Qaeda.More than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians were massacred in their heartland on the Mediterranean coast in March, with government-affiliated groups blamed for most of the killings. Government forces also battled Druze fighters in Sweida and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.Government troops had entered Sweida on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a truce, following days of deadly sectarian clashes.But witnesses said that government forces instead joined the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians.- US mediation -The Syrian president also hit out at Israel’s military intervention, saying that it would have pushed “matters to a large-scale escalation, except for the effective intervention of American, Arab and Turkish mediation, which saved the region from an unknown fate”.The United States — a close ally of Israel that has been trying to reboot its relationship with Syria — said late Wednesday that an agreement had been reached to restore calm in the area, urging “all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made”.A US State Department spokesperson said that Washington “did not support (the) recent Israeli strikes”.Foreign ministers from 11 countries in the region, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, affirmed their support for the Syrian government in a joint statement released by the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry on Thursday.They strongly condemned the Israeli attacks, describing them as a “blatant violation of international law and a flagrant assault on Syria’s sovereignty”, the statement said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the ceasefire was a result of his country’s “powerful action”.Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the group, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces away from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.Dozens of Druze gathered in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Thursday, hoping to catch a glimpse of relatives on the Syrian-held side who might try to cross the barbed-wire frontier. Qamar Abu Saleh, a 36-year-old educator, said that some people “opened the fence and entered, and people from Syria also started crossing here”.”It was like a dream, and we still can’t believe it happened.”burs-nad/rlp/tc/sco

US aviation giant Boeing on Thursday signed a contract valued at $7 billion to sell 12 787 Dreamliners, with options for six more, to Gulf Air, as the Bahrain-based carrier looks to expand its global network.The order comes just one month after an Air India Boeing 787 crashed shortly after takeoff, killing a total of 260 people on the plane and on the ground.”Once finalized, this order will bring the carrier’s firm order book to 14 of the versatile wide-body jets and will support 30,000 jobs across the US,” the companies said in a joint statement.The US Commerce Department put the value of the deal at $7 billion.The deal “marks a transformative step in Gulf Air’s strategic growth journey as we expand our global footprint and modernize our fleet with one of the industry’s most advanced and efficient aircraft,” said Gulf Air Group chairman Khalid Taqi.”The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has proven to be an exceptional aircraft for our long-haul operations, and this new order reflects our confidence in its performance, passenger appeal and contribution to our sustainability goals.”Boeing delivered 150 commercial aircraft in the second quarter, its highest number of deliveries in that quarter since 2018. That was just before two 737 MAX crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 — which killed 346 people — plunged the company into crisis.The Air India jet bound for London crashed in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on June 12. A preliminary investigation report revealed that fuel control switches were switched off shortly after takeoff. Boeing has not been asked to take any action as the probe continues.US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a trade pact with Indonesia that limits tariffs on Indonesian products at 19 percent, and said the deal features a pledge from the country to buy 50 Boeing jets, “many of them 777s.”