CAIRO (Reuters) - Gaza's tiny Christian community said that they were happy about the election of a new leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday, adding they were also confident he would give importance to the war-torn enclave like his predecessor Pope Francis did.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, a little known missionary from Chicago, was elected in a surprise choice to be the new head of the Catholic Church, becoming the first U.S. pope and taking the name Leo XIV.

"We are happy about the election of the Pope ... We hope that his heart will remain with Gaza like Pope Francis," George Antone, 44, head of the emergency committee at the Holy Family Church in Gaza, told Reuters.

The late Pope Francis, who campaigned for peace for the devastated enclave, called the church hours after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, the start of what the Vatican News Service would describe as a nightly routine throughout the war.

"We appeal to the new pope to look at Gaza through the eyes of Pope Francis and to feel it with the heart of Pope Francis. At the same time, we are confident that the new pope will give importance to Gaza and its peace," Antone added.

War in Gaza erupted when Hamas militants launched an attack against southern Israel, in which 251 people were taken hostage and some 1,200 were killed, according to Israeli tallies.

Since the abductions, Israel has responded with an air and ground assault on Gaza that has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health authorities there, and reduced much of Gaza to ruins.

Hamas, in a statement, congratulated Pope Leo saying that it looked forward to "his continuation of the late Pope's path in supporting the oppressed and rejecting the genocide in Gaza."

The Holy Family Church compound in Gaza houses 450 Christians as well as a shelter for the elderly and children that also accommodates 30 Muslims, Antone said.

Gaza's 2.3 million population comprises an estimated 1,000 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Enas Alashray and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Alistair Bell)