GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — The death toll from an Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church rose to three people on Thursday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, as Israel said it “never targets” religious sites and regretted any harm to civilians.

Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened” by the loss of life, which a witness said was the result of a tank shell hitting the church.

AFP footage showed those injured being treated at Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, with one receiving oxygen and blood while lying under a foil blanket.

Mourners knelt next to two white body bags laid out on the floor.

“In the morning a tank shell targeted us and hit the church and a number of civilians were killed and wounded,” said Shadi Abu Daoud, a displaced man whose 70-year-old mother was killed in the strike.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem named the dead as Najwa Abu Daoud, Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh and Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad.

“This morning, at approximately 10:20 am , the Compound of the Holy Family in Gaza… was struck by the Israeli army,” it said in a statement.

“As of this hour, three individuals lost their lives as a result of the injuries sustained and ten others were wounded,” including the community’s parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, it added, revising a previous toll of two.

An AFP photograph showed Father Romanelli with a bandage around his lower leg at Al-Ahli Hospital.

In a subsequent report AFP indicated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump on Thursday that the strike had been “a mistake,” according to White House said.

Trump called Netanyahu after having “not a positive reaction” to learning of the strike, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed that three people were killed in an Israeli strike on the church in Gaza City, with which the late Pope Francis kept regular contact through the war.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, told Vatican News that: “What we know for sure is that a tank, the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this, they hit the Church directly”.

The patriarchate, which has jurisdiction for Catholics in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Cyprus, said it “strongly condemns this strike and this targeting of innocent civilians”.

The site was sheltering around 600 displaced people, the majority of them children and 54 with special needs.

“The people in the Holy Family Compound are people who found in the Church a sanctuary — hoping that the horrors of war might at least spare their lives, after their homes, possessions and dignity had already been stripped away,” a statement read.

It came as Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes elsewhere across the Palestinian territory killed at least 22 people.

Israel expressed “deep sorrow” over the damage and civilian casualties, adding that the military was investigating, as foreign leaders, including from France and Italy called the strike “unacceptable”.