Overwhelming grief, desperation and worry of extermination have overtaken the Gaza Strip’s small Christian neighborhood in a season often marked by merriment as Israel continues its unrelenting assaults on the besieged enclave.
Palestinian Christian Ibrahim Al-Amash summarized the somber scenario by saying: “There is no holiday spirit here in Gaza.”
Israeli ongoing conflict on Gaza has already claimed the lives of many Christians within the Strip, whereas quite a few others have been injured in airstrikes and floor assaults.
“At the beginning of the war, we took refuge in the Church of St. Porphyrius in Gaza City, but it was targeted by Israeli warplanes which resulted in the killing and injuring of a large number of people,” Amash, 45, informed Turkish Anadolu Agency (AA).
“There is no safe place for Christians or Muslims here in Gaza,” he mentioned.
Amash expressed the “fear of genocide” saying: “There are new massacres every day.”
“I have lost many relatives and friends to this war,” he mentioned. “I have never witnessed destruction of this magnitude in my life.”
“This is the most vicious war I have ever witnessed. I don’t know what to say. There are dead people everywhere,” mentioned Amash.
He defined that the Christian neighborhood may be very small in Gaza.
“In this war, we are threatened with annihilation by Israeli bombing,” he mentioned.
“As the birthday of Jesus Christ approaches, the hearts of the Christians in Gaza and the rest of Palestine are nowhere around the holiday spirit,” mentioned Amash, stressing that “even if the bombing stops, we will not celebrate, we will only pray for the end of the war, for peace, so that people can return to their homes.”
An Israeli sniper killed a mom and her daughter and injured seven others final Saturday in the one Catholic church within the Gaza Strip, mentioned the native Latin Catholic Church authority.
The incident was deplored by Pope Francis, who instructed that Israel was utilizing “terrorism” ways in Gaza.
Continuous assaults
This isn’t the primary incident through which Christian locations of worship have been focused.
The Israeli military focused on Oct. 21 the Church of St. Porphyrius in Gaza, the oldest Orthodox church within the metropolis, killing a minimum of 18 Christians, in response to the Gaza Government Media Office.
The military additionally focused the Orthodox Cultural Center within the Rimal neighborhood in southwestern Gaza City, which led to the destruction of huge components of the middle.
British MP Layla Moran mentioned in an announcement on X final Friday that a few of her kinfolk have been among the many 300 victims trapped within the Catholic Church in Gaza City.
“My family in the Catholic Church in Gaza City are reporting white phosphorous and gunfire into their compound,” mentioned Moran.
“Soldiers are at the gates and there was a fire when they hit one of the (already dysfunctional) generators. There is no water left. There are 300 people there. We don’t know why this is happening. Are they going to be expelled from a church just days before Christmas??!” she added.
Christmas canceled
Christian communities in Palestinian territories introduced days in the past the cancelation of Christmas celebrations, together with the lighting of the Christmas tree, as a result of conflict in Gaza, in a message of solidarity from the heads of the Christian church buildings.
The heads of Christian church buildings, together with Bishop Atallah Hanna, Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, determined to cancel solely the festive facets of Christmas, together with festivals, celebrations and adorning and lighting Christmas bushes, whereas preserving the spiritual dimensions of the vacation, in mild of the conflict in an distinctive determination, in response to an announcement by the church buildings.
Hanna mentioned nobody has the authority to cancel Christmas, as a result of it’s a essential vacation within the Christian Church, whether or not in response to the Western calendar on Dec. 25 or in response to the Eastern calendar on Jan. 7.
The decision goals to convey a powerful message of solidarity to all Christian church buildings on the earth, calling for prayers for Palestine in mild of the tough circumstances it’s witnessing.
Although the Christmas tree won’t be lit in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, there are initiatives in some church buildings to mild a tree within the colours of the Palestinian flag or bearing the phrases “Justice and Peace.”
Christians signify a small share of the inhabitants in Gaza, with about 1,000 residing within the besieged coastal enclave.
The majority are Greek Orthodox, whereas a a lot smaller share are Roman Catholics, Baptists and different Protestant denominations, in response to a 2014 survey performed by the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA).
Source: www.dailysabah.com