Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (Vatican Media) — The parish priest of Gaza Strip’s small Christian community admitted his flock is exhausted by war and a severe lack of food. The priest spoke to Vatican Radio amid tragedy after tragedy unfolding in the enclave, with at least 32 people killed by Israeli strikes only on July 13, including six children at a water collection point.

The Israeli military said it was targeting a militant but a technical error made its munitions fall “dozens of meters from the target,” The Associated Press reported.

While small children and teenagers leaned over body bags in tears to say goodbye to their friends and relatives, a Palestinian surgeon was also killed in the strikes. Ahmed Qandil, who specialized in general surgery, had been on his way to Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital when he was killed, Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesman confirmed to AP.

Father Gabriel Romanelli, pastor of the Holy Family Parish, asked not to be forgotten and for continued prayers, which he called an unending source of hope.

He told Vatican Radio that basic goods reached unimaginable prices and that they’re almost impossible to find due to blockade of humanitarian aid.

He said flour reached the price of $11 per pound, tomatoes are $13 per pound and a single onion costs between $14 and $17.

A pound of sugar is $50, he said.

“But coffee, bitter or not, is out of reach entirely: it goes for no less than 250 Euros per kilo,” or almost $300 for 2 pounds.

“Let me be clear, these prices are almost theoretical,” he said. “Before we talk about paying for anything, we need to find it. And that is nearly impossible. When available, we rely on small makeshift wartime gardens, tended by impromptu farmers. But these are becoming increasingly rare, as most of the population has fled toward the south of Gaza.”

When asked what people are managing to eat in these difficult times, Father Romanelli said that the aid they had stored during the truce “allowed us to sustain ourselves for the past few months, and even to help several Muslim families living in the neighbourhood of the parish. But after Israel halted humanitarian aid on March 3, nothing else has arrived. Since then, we’ve had to keep what remains for ourselves — and even then, we are rationing it carefully.”

Most of the homes near the Holy Family Parish compound are now empty. Father Romanelli said.

“All around us, there is only death and destruction. Day and night, we live with the sound of bombs falling, sometimes just a few hundred meters from the church. It is surreal, but after 21 months, these terrible explosions have become part of our daily routine.”

The Christian community of the Holy Family Parish now numbers around 500, Father Romanelli said.

“We are camped out in every corner of the parish grounds. Before October 7, there were 1,017 Christians in Gaza. Around 300 managed to leave when the Rafah crossing to Egypt was still open. Fifty-four have died,” he said, including those who were killed in the bombing of St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in October 2023.

“Among our own faithful, elderly musician Elham Farah was killed in November 2023,” Father Romanelli told Vatican radio. A month later an Israel Defense Forces sniper shot and killed Nahida Khalil Anton, and her daughter, Samar Kamal Anton, as they walked to a convent at the Holy Family compound in Gaza. The convent of the Missionaries of Charity also was targeted.

“Others died due to the war itself — those suffering from heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions who no longer had access to vital medications. There are still about 50 disabled individuals and sick children being lovingly cared for by the Missionaries of Charity, the sisters of Mother Teresa,” the priest said.

Father Romanelli acknowledged the deep fatigue and anxiety that have settled over the community: “We feel almost entirely alone in this area. The only thing that keeps us together and gives us hope is prayer,” which, he admitted, “prevents us from falling into despair.”

Expressing his gratitude for publishing reports on Vatican Media news websites that allow “more people to understand what we are living,” Father Romanelli also expressed grateful memories of the phone calls Pope Francis gave him almost every night, when he was still in good health.

“The nightly phone calls from Pope Francis were a tremendous source of strength,” he said.

“To know that we are just a small part of something much greater — the universal Church — and to know that over a billion Christians around the world are praying for this small, suffering community, gives us extraordinary resilience. Food, medicine, and fuel are as essential to us as prayer itself. Without prayer, ours and yours, we would not have made it this far. We are counting on you.”

Meanwhile on July 7, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz laid out plans to force all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah.

The plan was since described by legal experts and academics as a “blueprint for crimes against humanity,” The Guardian reported.

Asked about the plans laid out by Katz, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the British newspaper that “It is a concentration camp. I am sorry.”

“If they (Palestinians) will be deported into the new ‘humanitarian city,’ then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing,” Olmert told The Guardian. That would be “the inevitable interpretation” of any attempt to create a camp for hundreds of thousands of people, he said.

Author Roberto Cetera writes for Vatican News, and has been reprinted with permission. OSV News contributed to this report.

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