Gaza City, Gaza - An Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church killed at least two people Thursday, the territory's civil defense agency and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, as Italy's prime minister slammed "unacceptable" Israeli attacks on civilians.

The latest atrocity came as Gaza's civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes killed 18 people across the Palestinian territory on Thursday.

"With deep sorrow the Latin Patriarchate can now confirm that two persons were killed as a result of an apparent strike by the Israeli army that hit the Holy Family Compound this morning," the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement.

"We pray for the rest of their souls and for the end of this barbaric war. Nothing can justify the targeting of innocent civilians," it added.

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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that "Israeli strikes on Gaza have also hit the Holy Family Church," a parish in Gaza City with which the late Pope Francis had regular contact throughout the war.

"The attacks against the civilian population carried out by Israel for months are unacceptable," Meloni said in a post on X. "No military action can justify such behavior."

Italy was among 27 European Union countries that on Tuesday declined to suspend a trade agreement with Israel, despite overwhelming evidence that its actions in Gaza and the illegally occupied West Bank violate human rights commitments.

Out of the Gaza Strip's population of more than two million, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.

Over the past 20 months, Israel has repeatedly bombed and attacked places of worship serving as shelters for Gaza's besieged population, in what numerous human rights organizations, legal experts, and scholars have determined to be a genocidal assault on Palestinians.

Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch, the head of Catholic charity l'Oeuvre d'Orient, told AFP the raid was "totally unacceptable".

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"It is a place of worship. It is a Catholic church known for its peaceful attitude, for being a peacemaker. These are people who are at the service of the population," he said.

"There was no strategic objective, there were no jihadists in this church. There were families, there were civilians. This is totally unacceptable and we condemn in the strongest possible terms this attitude on the part of Israel."

Despite every evidence to the contrary, Israel on Thursday claimed it "never targets churches or religious sites and regrets any harm to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians."