The Guardian reported that hundreds of Christians and Muslims were sheltering inside Saint Porphyrius church on Thursday evening when a missile brought down part of the complex, killing at least 16 people.
On Friday their bodies were laid out for a mass funeral in the
church courtyard.
A spokesman for the Orthodox Patriarchate
of Jerusalem, which runs the church, said many of those inside at the time were
women and children, and accused Israel of targeting churches.
“The Patriarchate emphasises that targeting churches and their
institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens
… constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored.” He said.
Well
so much for the venerable gentleman’s impartial observation.
An IDF spokesman said it had
damaged “a wall of a church” when it hit a Hamas “command and control centre”
nearby, but denied intentionally targeting the church.
It provided a video that showed a missile hitting a building immediately adjacent to the church,
and said the incident was under review.
Saint Porphyrius is the oldest active church in the city, dedicated to a bishop who destroyed the city’s pagan temples and converted the city to Christianity. It was founded in the early 5th century, soon after his death.
The Saint Porphyrius church was rebuilt by the crusaders who set up camp in the city 700 years later, and renovated it at a later date. The church is less than 300 metres from the al-Ahli hospital compound I mentioned last week. It has architectural and constructional similarities with a Byzantine era church which was requisitioned after the Muslim conquest in the 7th century and consecrated as the Great Mosque of Gaza also known as the Great Omari Mosque. It is the largest and oldest mosque in the Gaza Strip.
Believed to stand on the site of an
ancient Philistine temple the mosque was damaged in an earthquake
in 1033. In 1149, the Crusaders built a large church there which was mostly destroyed by the Ayyubids in 1187. The saga of destruction and rededication continued when the Mamlukes rebuilt the structure as a mosque in the early 13th century.
It was destroyed by the Mongols in 1260,
then soon restored shortly afterwards only to be destroyed by an
earthquake at the end of the century.
The Great Mosque was restored again by the Ottomans about 300 years
later. Some Western travellers in the late 19th century reported that the Great
Mosque was the only structure in Gaza worthy of historical or architectural
note. The Great Mosque was severely damaged by Allied forces while attacking the Ottoman positions in Gaza during World War 1. The British
claimed that there were Ottoman munitions stored in the mosque and its
destruction was caused when the munitions were ignited by the bombardment. If that sounds familiar it’s because Hamas has taken a page from the
Ottoman military tactics handbook.
The mosque was
restored by the Supreme Muslim Council in 1926-27.
According to tradition, the mosque stands on the site of the Philistine temple dedicated to
According to the Book of Judges Samson ‘brought the house down’ there, killing himself and a great many
Philistines. Local legend claims that Samson is buried under the present mosque.
Since Samson and his feats are more legend
than historical fact, I doubt it very much.
There was a Hebrew and Greek inscription carved on the upper tier of one of the building's columns. It was suggested
in the late 19th century that the upper pillars of the building were brought
from a 3rd-century Jewish synagogue in Caesarea. However, the discovery of a sixth century synagogue at Maiumas, the ancient
port of Gaza, in the 1960s make local re-use of this column much likelier. The
relief on the column depicted Jewish cultic objects - a menorah, a shofar, a lulav and an etrog -
surrounded by a decorative wreath, and the inscription that reads - "Hananyah son of Jacob" in both Hebrew and Greek. The
relief was destroyed sometime between 1973-1996 and the stone has been smoothed
over.
The ancient synagogue of
Gaza was built in 508 A.D during the Byzantine period and was discovered in 1965.
Egyptian archaeologists discovered the site and announced
they had uncovered a church. Later a mosaic of King David wearing a crown and playing a lyre, labelled in Hebrew, was found. The Egyptian archaeologists stated that the
mosaic was in fact an Orpheus mosaic , Orpheus being a figure from Greek mythology who was commonly associated with Jesus or David and used in Byzantine art. Shortly after
the mosaic's discovery, the main figure's face was gouged out. When Israel
captured the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War, the mosaic was transferred to the Israel Museum for
restoration.
The mosaic floor of the synagogue
is on display at the Museum of the Good Samaritan, located on the Jerusalem-Jericho Road near Ma'ale Adumim in
the West Bank.
The best-known panel of the mosaic
floor shows King David, who is named in a Hebrew inscription reading
"David" (דויד), while sitting and playing a lyre with a number of wild
animals listening tamely in front of him. The iconography is a clear example of
David being depicted in the posture of the legendary Greek musician Orpheus.
Mosaic
floors from synagogues and monasteries that flourished during the same era in
the West Bank have been ‘rescued’ and are also on display in the museum.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is told in Luke 10:29–37: A man
going from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked by robbers who strip him and beat
him. A priest and a Levite pass by without helping him. But a Samaritan stops
and cares for him, taking him to an inn where
the Samaritan pays for his care.
The Inn of
the Good Samaritan is a national park, museum,
ancient archaeological site and former inn administered by the Israel
Nature and Parks Authority located near Ma'ale Adumim, halfway
between Jerusalem and Jericho,
After 1967 Israel
developed the ruins as a tourist site officially called the "Good
Samaritan Inn.” However, the identification as the "inn
of the good Samaritan" is neither of Byzantine, nor of Crusader date,
but of a later time, when pilgrims saw in the blood-coloured rocks the symbolic
proof that this was the place where the traveller in the parable was beaten by
the robbers.
Irrespective of the fact that the narrative is no more than a parable.
Incidentally,
A caravanserai was a
roadside inn where travellers could rest and recuperate from the day's journey. The caravanserai system supported the flow of commerce, information and
people across the network of trade routes covering Asia, North Africa and
Southeast Europe, most notably the Silk Road. Alternatively known as a khan, one such facility, Khan al-Tujjar near Mount Tabor is clearly visible from my kibbutz.
In its heyday the khan accommodated
many travelling merchants. A traveller who chanced by the khan in the mid
eighteenth century remarked -
“The wayfarers are lavishly given a loaf of bread
and a tallow candle for each person, and a nosebag of barley for each
horse—free of charge.” The last time I passed by the khan it didn’t look
too inviting.
Take
care.
Beni,
23rd of October, 2023
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