Israeli Strike Killed Relatives, Former Congressman Says

Justin Amash posts that family members had taken refuge in a church
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 21, 2023 1:35 PM CDT
Israeli Strike Kill Relatives, Former Congressman Says
Rep. Justin Amash attends a subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in 2019.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Justin Amash, a former US House member from Michigan, has posted that several of his relatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. Amash, who was the first Palestinian American in Congress, said they had sought shelter at a Greek Orthodox church when the complex was hit late Thursday, the Hill reports. "The Palestinian Christian community has endured so much," Amash wrote on X. "Our family is hurting badly." Church officials and witnesses said the strike caused a building to collapse, killing at least 17 Palestinians. Israeli military officials said that they had intended to strike a nearby Hamas command center and that the destruction at the church complex was unintended, per the Wall Street Journal.

The Holy Orthodox Order of Saint George issued a statement saying that children, including infants, were sleeping in the church halls at the time. Amash's post included a photo of two of the relatives. Former congressional colleagues, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pramila Jayapal, posted condolences. Amash, who was a Republican before he joined the Libertarian Party, represented Michigan's Third District until 2021. "May God watch over all Christians in Gaza—and all Israelis and Palestinians who are suffering," he wrote, "whatever their religion or creed." (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)

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