Christians in Gaza Shelter in Two Churches as War Enters Eighth Month

Christians in Gaza are living through what the source describes as the worst stage of the war, now about eight months long, and face very difficult living conditions. Many have taken refuge in St. Porphyry’s Church, which the report describes as the oldest church in the Gaza Strip, dating to the 5th century AD, and in the Holy Family Church, part of the last remaining Catholic diocese in Gaza’s Old City. Families have sought these buildings as a “safe haven” for themselves and their children.

According to the report, the Christian community in Gaza numbered about 1,000 when the war broke out on October 7. At the time of reporting, about 800 were still in Gaza, after 236 days of war.

Saad Hakora, a businessman whom the report describes as one of the pillars of the national sports system and the General Federation of Palestinian Industries, and as head of the administrative office of the precious metal federation in Gaza, spoke in an interview with the outlet. Hakora said that the world must not remain silent about the suffering in Gaza, and he called on people of conscience to speak out against the continuation of the war.

Theodore Bishara Shehadeh, a member of the Council of Churches, told the outlet that the two churches now host 340 families, which he said is nearly all of the Christians remaining in Gaza. Families sleep on mattresses in the chapels and on the floors of church buildings. Shehadeh said the churches have become the community’s “last resort,” but that they now struggle to absorb the people arriving and to provide them with reasonable conditions, a picture of open-handed welcome to strangers (Matthew 25:35).

The report also cites the Ministry of Government Communications in Gaza, which it says reported that three churches have been destroyed during the ongoing military operations. The ministry’s figures, as cited in the report, put the number of dead, wounded and missing at more than 115,000, mostly children and women, and describe conditions of famine and widespread destruction.

The report quotes a statement expressing concern about the “threat to the Palestinian Christian presence” and calling for greater international action and pressure “to stop the occupation’s aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip and the entire West Bank, including Jerusalem.”

Hakora said that members of the Christian community in Gaza, many of whom have been displaced, want to return to work and to life in their homeland, and that they regard Jerusalem as the eternal capital. He said that the message of the community to the world is: “After this unjust war, the world conscience and conscience of the peoples must awaken from their deep sleep and slumber, and our message to the believers, the free and the good in all parts of the world, is to issue a great ‘no’ against the continuation of war and aggression.”

Source: Read the original report (translated from Hebrew)