Christians in Gaza are living a “Way of the Cross”, according to the parish priest of the Holy Family Parish in Gaza City. Source: The Tablet.
Fr Gabriel Romanelli IVE was visiting Bethlehem on the day Hamas attacked Israel and has not been able to return to Gaza since October 7. He maintains regular contact with his Gaza parish. He reported that Christians sheltering in the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip face worsening conditions as Israeli forces intensify raids ahead of a ground offensive in Rafah.
Israel has ordered civilians to evacuate the Zaitun neighbourhood, where the Holy Family Parish is located.
After more than four months of war, about 600 Christians sheltering in the compound (who include Orthodox Christians from the neighbouring St Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in October) are “tired, sad, and heartbroken”.
“They can’t see a future”, said the Argentinian priest. Despite this, he added, “They do their utmost for those who have less than them, for the many families living near the parish.”
Airstrikes have destroyed the local Rosary Sisters School and over half of Gaza’s hospitals have been forced to close. Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza now exceed 29,000, with over 69,000 injured, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health. About 600,000 Palestinian children in Rafah face the risk of starvation.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, called the violence “one of the most terrible periods of the last decades”, warning that “it seems to us that there is no way out” but that this was “one of the temptations of the devil”.
“Even in this terrible situation, it’s possible to talk about hope and reconciliation,” he said, in a Lenten message to the UK charity Friends of the Holy Land.
FULL STORY
Gaza’s Christians suffer ‘Way of the Cross’ says parish priest (By Ellen Teague, The Tablet)
