“I have instructed the competent authorities to grant Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch, full and immediate access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a post on X, spoke after the incident that marked Palm Sunday. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, had been denied access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu’s message

“In recent days, Iran has repeatedly targeted the holy sites of all three monotheistic religions in Jerusalem with ballistic missiles. In one attack, missile fragments fell a few meters from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. To protect worshippers, Israel asked members of all faiths to temporarily refrain from praying in the Christian, Muslim and Jewish holy sites of Jerusalem’s Old City,” Netanyahu said in the message. “Today, out of particular concern for his safety, Cardinal Pizzaballa was asked to refrain from celebrating Mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” the prime minister added. “While I understand this concern, as soon as I learned of the incident involving Cardinal Pizzaballa, I instructed the authorities so that the Patriarch could celebrate religious services as he wishes,” the prime minister concluded.

The plan

The Times of Israel reports that a plan has been agreed between the authorities and the patriarchate. The newspaper refers to a meeting to define the protocol. The deputy commissioner of the Jerusalem district, Avshalom Peled, and the commander of a district sector, Dvir Tamim, held talks with a representative of the patriarchate: the plan will allow “all Christian denominations to pray in the church while the war continues,” the Times of Israel writes. A police source, according to the paper, says the plan will be announced on Monday, March 30 after a new meeting involving representatives of all denominations.

President Herzog’s regret

During the day, Israeli President Isaac Herzog also spoke, saying he had a telephone conversation with Cardinal Pizzaballa and expressed his “deep regret for the unfortunate incident” that occurred this morning in the Old City of Jerusalem.

“I clarified that the incident was caused by security concerns due to the ongoing threat of missile attacks by the Iranian terrorist regime against the civilian population in Israel, following earlier incidents in recent days in which Iranian missiles fell in the area of the Old City of Jerusalem,” Herzog added, stressing that he reiterated to Pizzaballa “the State of Israel’s unwavering commitment to freedom of religion for all faiths and to maintaining the status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites.”

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