(Reuters) -&nbsp;Former&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;Representative Justin&nbsp;Amash&nbsp;said on Friday that several of his&nbsp;relatives&nbsp;had been&nbsp;killed&nbsp;when a Greek Orthodox&nbsp;church&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Gaza&nbsp;Strip was hit overnight by an Israeli&nbsp;air&nbsp;strike.
"Our family is hurting badly,"&nbsp;Amash&nbsp;wrote on X. "May God watch over all Christians in&nbsp;Gaza&nbsp;&mdash; and all Israelis and Palestinians who are suffering, whatever their religion or creed."
Palestinian officials said at least 500 Muslims and Christians had taken shelter from Israeli bombardments in the Greek Orthodox&nbsp;Church&nbsp;of St. Porphyrius, and the Hamas-run government's health ministry said 16 were&nbsp;killed.
The Israeli military said part of the&nbsp;church&nbsp;was damaged in a&nbsp;strike&nbsp;on a nearby militant command center, and that it was reviewing the incident.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemned the&nbsp;strike&nbsp;in a statement.
Amash, a Palestinian-American,&nbsp;represented Michigan as a&nbsp;Republican in the&nbsp;U.S. House of&nbsp;Representatives from 2011 to 2021. A vocal critic of&nbsp;former&nbsp;Republican President Donald Trump,&nbsp;Amash&nbsp;left the party in 2019 and later joined the Libertarian Party.
Israel has besieged&nbsp;Gaza&nbsp;since Hamas&nbsp;killed&nbsp;1,400 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7. More than 4,100 Palestinians have been&nbsp;killed, according to Palestinian health officials, and more than 1 million Palestinians have been left homeless, according to the United Nations.
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(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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Former U.S. Rep Amash says relatives killed in Gaza church air strike