Sri Lankan civil war: After advising civilians to take shelter in places of worship, the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed a church in Navaly, killing at least 147 people.

The Sri Lankan civil war was fought in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, it was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam led by Velupillai Prabhakaran. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island, due to the continuous discrimination and violent persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka government.

The Sri Lanka Air Force is the air arm and the youngest of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. It was founded in 1951 as the Royal Ceylon Air Force (RCyAF) with the assistance of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The SLAF played a major role throughout the Sri Lankan Civil War. The SLAF operates more than 160 aircraft.

The Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Navaly in the Jaffna Peninsula was bombed by the Sri Lankan Air Force during the Sri Lankan Civil War on 9 July 1995. It is estimated that at least 147 Tamil civilians, who had taken refuge from the fighting inside the church, died as a result of the bombing. The victims included men, women and children.

Navaly, also transliterated as Navali, Navaaly or Navaali is a town in the Jaffna District of Sri Lanka and it is located about 6 km from Jaffna, in the northwest of the peninsula of the same name. There are many famous places in the town, for example: Navaly kalaiyoodai amman koovil, St. Peter's Church. Nearly 1500 people live there.