Caught up in the bombing and gun fights and hunger and destitution in Gaza are hundreds of Christians, some with Australian connections.
At least several families are separated, with some in Australia and the rest trapped in Gaza. After the horrific slaughter of 1200 Israelis on 7 October 2023, Israel immediately sealed the borders of the enclave. This left some in Egypt or Jordan or travelling overseas shut out and some with Australian visas shut in.
Monica Chahoud, of the Melkite Charitable Foundation, in Greenacre, told The Catholic Weekly that about 400 Christian Palestinians, both Catholic and Orthodox, are currently sheltering in the Holy Family Catholic compound in the northern part of Gaza with a church, school and convent.
It is the only Catholic parish in Gaza. Before the war it was said to be the best school in Gaza, according to the Latin Patriarchate.
“Most of them are living, from my understanding, on the floor of the church, and using the church as their refuge,” Chahoud said.
“A lot of them are sick now. Some actually have Australian visas, but we can’t get them out, or they won’t leave the rest of their families.”
Families are sleeping on classroom floors; toilet and shower times are rationed. Food is scarce.
Parish priest Fr Gabriel Romanelli, an Argentinian missionary who belongs to the Institute of the Incarnate Word, described the situation to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) last week.
“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,” Fr Romanelli said.
People are dying for a scrap of bread, he says, referring to recent food riots in which dozens have died.
The situation continues to be terrible. Supplies are arriving, but are utterly insufficient. He concedes Gazans are stealing from the trucks and distribution centres, but says this is no excuse for not distributing much more. Whoever started the riots is not the point; the point is that people have died trying to get food.
Holy Family parish is in northern Gaza where there is less fighting at the moment. Fr Romanelli reports that conditions are manageable, although death is always around the corner.
“Inside the parish compound, we are doing as well as possible, though we hear a lot of shelling, and sometimes shrapnel reaches our compound.”
The horror is literally in the air. Fr Romanelli tells viewers on his YouTube channel (in Spanish) that he has a cough brought on by a Mediterranean breeze filled with cement dust, explosive residues, and smoke.
Sometimes it has been much closer. In October 2023, an Israeli airstrike killed 18 civilians inside the compound of the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, an ancient shrine. It is the only Greek Orthodox church in Gaza.
Not long afterwards, in December 2023, an Israeli sniper shot and killed a mother and her daughter inside the Holy Family parish compound.
“No warning was given, no notification was provided,” protested the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. “They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.”
Sydneysider Sally Asfour is a Palestinian Christian who has relatives sheltering in the parish compound. Despite unstable internet connections, she is in daily touch with them via WhatsApp.
“What’s painful is my cousin’s daughter, son and husband are in Australia at the moment, and she and her daughter are in Gaza,” she told The Catholic Weekly. “They have been separated for the last 19 months because they were just outside of Gaza on 7 October, but they couldn’t get back in, and the others couldn’t get out.”
Ms Asfour’s relatives reinforce the sense of constant peril.
“Two nights ago, it was no go zone, and everything around the church has been bombed. I have videos of what it looked like outside our church. Everything is in rubble, everything is burning, everything,” said Ms Asfour. “My family was living in masks, you know, as you did during Covid time.”
She feels passionately that Israel’s campaign in Gaza is wrong.
“I would absolutely love the readers of The Catholic Weekly to put pressure on the churches to come out and condemn the actions of Israel and what they’re doing to the Gaza population in general. Jesus stood up for the oppressed,” she said.
Another burning issue is the future of Christianity in Gaza after the war. Only about a thousand Gazans are Christian. Numbers have fallen steeply from about 3,000 since 2007, when Hamas took control.
Of these, perhaps a few hundred are Catholic. Precise figures are difficult due to the chaotic situation in Gaza. The remainder belong to the Greek Orthodox Church. The 20 century-long Christian presence in the Holy Land mustn’t vanish, Palestinian Christians in Sydney say.
“People just assume that they’re all Islamic or they’re all Jewish or whatever, but they’re not.
“There are Christians and we’re getting forgotten. We’re getting forgotten in the process,” says Chahoud. “So we have to be their voices.”