Christian mother and daughter killed in Gaza airstrike

03/10/2026

GAZA CITY — A Christian mother and her daughter were killed together in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City, their bodies pulled from the rubble of their home as neighbors searched through the wreckage. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem identified the women on Saturday as Maysa Khader Ibrahim Abu Daoud (Ayyad) and Mary Hafez Michel Najjar (Abu Daoud). 

Their deaths have brought renewed grief to Gaza’s small and increasingly vulnerable Christian community, where churches have become places of refuge as well as worship during the war. 

The Latin Patriarchate said Maysa and Mary were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the night of 2 October in Gaza City. Palestinian health and civil defense officials said the strike killed at least 5 people, including 4 women, and destroyed the apartment building before setting it on fire. 

For the residents who rushed to the scene, the 2 women were not simply names among the casualties. They were Christian neighbors, a mother and daughter whose bodies were recovered from the ruins. 

Ahmed Dahdouh, an eyewitness, told Reuters that residents were asleep when the explosions began. “We were asleep and suddenly heard continuous strikes, and heavy explosions. The children woke up startled and started running and screaming.” 

Dahdouh said residents ran outside after the attack and found that their neighbors’ home had been struck. They began searching through the rubble for those trapped beneath the building. “We ran out and found that our neighbor’s house was struck and there were dismembered martyrs, women, men and children. We started to pull them out. They were scattered under the rubble.” 

Among those they recovered were Maysa and Mary. “We are Muslims and these are our Christian brethren,” Dahdouh said. “They are peaceful people, and everybody loves them. And now we pulled out their bodies, a mother and her daughter.” 

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem confirmed the identities of the women in a statement titled “Condolences on the death of Maysa Khader Abu Daoud and Mary Hafez Najjar.” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, expressed his “deep sorrow and grief” over their deaths and offered condolences to their families and to Gaza’s Christian community. 

The funeral was scheduled for Saturday, 3 October, at noon at St. Porphyrius Church in Gaza, one of the historic Christian churches of the city. The church has become more than a place of prayer during the war. Alongside the Holy Family Church, St. Porphyrius has been associated with the sheltering of civilians as Gaza’s population has faced repeated displacement and destruction. 

For Gaza’s Christians, the killing of Maysa and Mary is another painful loss for a community whose presence in the territory predates the modern political boundaries and conflicts that now surround it. The community is small, but its roots are ancient. Gaza has been home to Christians for centuries, and churches have remained visible symbols of that history despite successive periods of war and upheaval.