Middle East

‘The war continues’: Gaza’s Christian minority seek shelter over Easter weekend

Christian community of some 1,000 people has taken refuge in two churches in besieged Palestinian enclave

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa (centre) marches down a road, overlooking the Dome of the Rock mosque at the al-Aqsa mosque complex, during the traditional Palm Sunday procession at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on March 24th. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty

Patsy McGarry
Sun Mar 31 2024 - 06:00

The situation for Christians in Gaza this Easter “is objectively intolerable,” the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, which includes Gaza, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa has said. “We have always had many problems of all kinds,” he continued, “and even the economic-financial situation has always been very fragile, but there has never been hunger before.”

“The weakness of the United States,” he said, “creates a great dilemma, because, until now, there has always been someone to put things in order. Now there is no longer anyone to play this role, and we have to do it ourselves. I don’t know if, how, or when this will be possible.”

Speaking earlier this week, he said “It will be a difficult Easter. I think of the loneliness of Jesus in Gethsemane, which is now shared by all of us”, as reported by the Vatican news service.

A Franciscan priest, Cardinal Pizzaballa has been Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem since 2020, overseeing the Latin rite churches, affiliated to Rome, in Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus.

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In the 24 years he has been in the role, he said he has never seen so much violence, “hatred, resentment, revenge, mistrust ... Everything together with such intensity.” He is in constant contact with the Catholics in Gaza, where there are just 180 among the small Christian community of about 1,000 people, the majority Greek Orthodox.

All have taken refuge in two churches in Gaza city. Just under 600 people are sheltering in the Holy Family Church, the only Catholic church in Gaza, and another 249 are in the Greek Orthodox Church of St Porphyrius which was bombed last October. At least 18 were killed of the 350 people sheltering there at the time.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem denounced that attack as “a war crime that cannot be ignored” while an Israeli army spokesman said its fighter jets attacked a “command post of a terrorist organisation” there and “a wall of a church in the area was damaged”.

Earlier that month, when the Israeli army ordered the civilian population in northern Gaza to move south, the majority of Christian families decided to stay in their churches.

According to Cardinal Pizzaballa “they found refuge there at the beginning of the war and, despite all the army’s calls to evacuate, they decided to stay, like many others. First of all, because they don’t know where to go. They don’t have anywhere. And nowhere in Gaza is safe, neither in the north nor in the south.”

Like other Gazans, Christians too suffered from the isolation and lack of freedom there resulting from Israel’s 16-year blockade. Being Christian, they were also excluded from work and society by Hamas and other fundamentalist Islamist movements. In 2007, there were about 7,000 Christians in the Gaza Strip, seven times their current number.

Meanwhile, the Church of Ireland in Dublin has raised €125,000 to date for the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City run by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem. The united dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough have had a long-standing relationship with the hospital and had raised funds for it over the past decade.

Its current goal is to raise €250,000 for the hospital and, during Lent, people were encouraged to donate a €1 a day “to repair or replace the solar panels at Al Ahli Hospital, towards the repair of its cancer unit, and towards funding vital trauma care for children.” There is a Shine a Light GoFundMe page online.

“Our appeal is non – political. It is based on our long-standing link with our fellow Anglicans in the Diocese of Jerusalem who run Al Ahli Hospital for all, regardless of faith, ethnicity or background,” said Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson.

“The war continues. Children, women and men continue to die. The human and the humanitarian need continues to escalate daily. Further response by us is now called for,” he said.

In an Easter message he said: “The world to which we waken up on Easter Morning is spattered with the blood of warfare and the detritus of community. It is also spattered with the incapacity of states and religions to make peace, to keep peace and to give peace.”

Patsy McGarry

Patsy McGarry

Patsy McGarry is a contributor to The Irish Times

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