MP's family trapped in Gaza church with no water as IDF 'shoots anyone leaving'

17 December 2023 , 15:07

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Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon (Image: Getty Images)

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has said her relatives have come under fire while sheltering in a besieged Catholic church in Gaza City.

The UK's first – and still only – MP of Palestinian descent said today on social media that a tank has taken a position outside the church and the building opposite has been overrun by IDF soldiers. She wrote: "The people inside have died. There are snipers at every window pointing into the church. Still shooting anyone emerging from buildings to use the toilets. Still no food or water."

Moran believes there are around 300 people, including her family, in the Holy Family Church complex and the last generator had run out. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said a Christian mother and daughter were killed by sniper fire at the compound in northern Gaza, while seven others were wounded. The MP for Oxford West and Abingdon told ITV News earlier today that six people are reported to have died, including a bin collector and a caretaker who were killed while coming and going from the site earlier in the week.

Palestinians look for survivors following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip (AP)

She told the broadcaster: "It's a week to Christmas Eve, these are Christians in a church who went there to seek sanctuary. This is making a mockery of the assertion by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) that they do not target civilians. They have known for two months that these are civilians. If they thought Hamas were there, they would have come earlier. There were no leaflets dropped, there was no prior warning – nothing. We are terrified for them, we don't know if they are going to last until Christmas."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel "will continue to fight until the end", to eliminate Hamas, which triggered the war with its October 7 attack into southern Israel. Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and captured scores of hostages. Meanwhile, more than 18,700 Palestinians have been killed, with 70% of them women and children, according to the territory's health officials. The vast majority of its 2.2 million people are displaced, and an estimated half face starvation amid an unfolding humanitarian crisis.

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Gaza remained under a communications blackout for a fourth straight day, the longest of several outages during the war. Aid groups say they complicate rescue efforts and make it even more difficult to monitor the toll on civilians. The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has condemned the "seemingly deliberate and callous killing" of the mother and daughter. One was killed trying to carry the other to safety.

Moran's immediate family are Palestinian Christians in the West Bank and her extended family is in Gaza. Her mother is a Christian Arab from Jerusalem and her father is a British EU Ambassador. She previously said to the National: "She [her mother] just passionately insists that Palestine is not about lines on a map, it’s about people. It confounds people that I am not Muslim because they associate Palestine with Islam. Then I point out that Jesus was born there and they go ‘oh, yes’ … It shows that the basic makeup of who is a Palestinian is very poorly understood internationally."

Rachel Hagan