A handful of worshipers and clergy gathered in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to mourn the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war. The small crowd was a far cry from the teams of tourists who usually stream through one of Christianity’s most sacred sites and attend Sunday mass at the place where Christians believe Jesus Christ was crucified. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, said a prayer for the victims of the Israeli air strike that hit the St Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church complex on Thursday.
