Situation in Gaza still “very bad”, says priest. “Nobody is talking about rebuilding”
For three months Gaza received no aid convoys, which meant that the parish had to ration the resources it has to feed the Christians within and some of the families that live nearby.
The situation in Gaza, in the Holy Land, continues to be “very bad” according to Fr Gabriel Romanelli, who is responsible for the only Catholic parish in the territory.
When the current war in Gaza broke out, the entire Christian population took refuge in the Holy Family Catholic parish and in the neighbouring Orthodox compound. The Catholic parish currently holds around 500 men, women and children, including a group of people with disabilities who are looked after by the Missionaries of Charity.
Speaking to the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Fr Romanelli explained that “inside the parish compound, we are doing as well as possible, though we hear a lot of shelling, and sometimes shrapnel reaches our compound”.
Father Gabriel’s main challenge, he says, is to properly order and organise life within the parish. This involves keeping a regular schedule such as silent prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament every morning and the recitation of the rosary and Mass in the afternoon.
The many children in the parish have regular lessons, to try and save the academic year, and activities are organised for children, teenagers, and families, as well as Bible study groups that meet once a week.
Resources that the parish receives from benefactors are distributed among all the residents and also among neighbouring Muslim families. However, Israel blocked access of any aid for the past three months. On 22 May, Israel permitted only 90 humanitarian trucks to enter Gaza—far below the estimated daily requirement of 500 trucks. This meant that the parish had to take more drastic measures.
“For three months, we haven’t received any aid. So, for now, we’re rationing everything we have, and only after this rationing we can distribute it to the refugees in the compound and to people from outside,” explains the parish priest. Nonetheless, he told ACN that he recently managed to distribute water both inside and outside the compound.
Gaza has been under siege since soon after the terrorist attacks of 7 October 2023, carried out by Hamas and other jihadist groups operating from the territory. Israel responded with a bombing campaign and a land invasion which continue until today, and which have caused dozens of thousands of deaths.
Around 52 members of the Christian population, which before this war stood at around 1,000 people, between Orthodox and Catholic, have also been directly killed in these attacks or died of illnesses due to lack of medical attention.
Though most are concerned merely with trying to survive, Fr Gabriel says that he has also detected signs of mental illness, including depression, among the faithful. “The most serious thing we see is that no one is talking about the end of the war or the right to stay here, or to rebuild homes, to start over,” he says.
“So, we pray, and we ask people to pray and work for peace,” he concludes.
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