The top Catholic priest in the region called for the war in Gaza to end on Tuesday, days after three Christians were killed by an Israeli tank shell in the only Catholic church in the war-torn Strip.

“It is time to end this nonsense, end the war and put the common good of people as the top priority,” said Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, speaking at a Jerusalem press conference alongside Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III, following their visit last week to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City.

In addition to the three civilians killed, several were injured in the Thursday incident, which sparked an international outcry and prompted a statement of regret from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

Among the injured in the strike was Parish Priest Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, a confidant of the late Pope Francis, who would speak to him nightly throughout the war in Gaza.

The church has offered shelter to hundreds of Palestinians since the beginning of the war, which was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion and slaughter in southern Israel.

Humanitarian aid for Gaza is a “matter of life and death,” said Pizzaballa.

“Refusing it is not a delay, but a sentence,” he continued. “Every hour without food, water, medicine and shelter causes deep harm.”

Pizzaballa called the situation “morally unacceptable and unjustifiable.”

The aid distribution mechanism established through the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has seen hundreds of Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to obtain food parcels, according to witnesses and health workers.

The UN has also reported that severe malnutrition is spreading in the territory, with a Hamas health official said on Tuesday that 20 people had died from starvation over the last 48 hours, although those figures cannot be independently verified.

“We witnessed both profound grief and unyielding hope,” said Theophilus. “Silence in the face of suffering is a betrayal of conscience.”

“Christ is not absent from Gaza,” said Pizzaballa. “He is there — crucified in the wounded, buried under rubble and yet present in every act of mercy, every candle in the darkness, every hand extended to the suffering.”

Turning to world leaders, Pizzaballa said, “There can be no future based on captivity, displacement of Palestinians or revenge.”

The cardinal also called for the release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Israel said it was investigating the deadly incident at the Gaza church, which it said was caused by shrapnel from tank fire that accidentally hit the shrine. On Friday, Netanyahu spoke with Pope Leo XIV for over an hour and expressed regret for the incident, as well as condolences for the families of the victims.

During the call, the pope renewed appeals for a ceasefire and an end to the war, and expressed fresh concern for “the dramatic humanitarian situation” in Gaza, according to the Vatican readout of the conversation.

At the time, the church was sheltering around 600 displaced people, the majority of them children, including dozens of people with special needs.

The pontiff slammed the “barbarity” of the war in Gaza on Sunday and urged against the “indiscriminate use of force.”

“I once again ask for an immediate end to the barbarity of the war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict,” Leo said at the end of the Angelus prayer at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence near Rome.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Pizzaballa stressed that the church has no military expertise, and is therefore in no position to say whether or not the IDF fired at the church intentionally.

“We don’t have any evidence or proof or anything,” he said. “We are not experts in military operations. Maybe it’s a mistake, we don’t know, because when you keep bombing everywhere,” he ended with a shrug.

In an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily, Pizzaballa expressed doubts about Israel’s insistence that the strike was a mistake.

“We are not a target. They say it was an error. Even if everybody here believes it wasn’t,” the cardinal said.

The two patriarchs did not bring any supplies with them during their Friday visit, though they did get approval from Israel to send 500 tons of aid into Gaza. “We are working on this,” said Pizzaballa. “In the coming day, when all the elements are done, the supplies will enter.”

The two clergymen said they were struck by the evident hunger they encountered in Gaza.

“You don’t see starvation,” said Pizzaballa. “You experience starvation.”

He recounted people wandering around listlessly, kids begging him for food, and wildly inflated prices for food.

Pizzaballa stressed that while “we are denouncing what is going on in Gaza,” they also “acknowledge the solidarity of many parts of Israeli society.”

“We are not against Israel, we are not against the Jewish people,” he said, emphasizing that they are against “the current policy in Gaza.”

“Morally we cannot justify it.”

Pizzaballa said that while the Holy Family Church is in an area under a general evacuation order by the IDF, no specific orders have been given to the church, in which about 400 civilians are sheltering.

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.

More than 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s population, displacing most residents at least once and triggering severe shortages of food and other essentials.