Religious leaders enter Gaza in rare solidarity visit after deadly church strike

Pierbattista Pizzaballa is the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land (AP)

Top church leaders in Jerusalem have travelled to Gaza in a rare solidarity visit to the territory one day after an Israeli shell slammed into its only Catholic church, killing three people.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III entered Gaza on Friday morning to express the “shared pastoral solicitude of the churches of the Holy Land”, according to a statement released by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.