Below is a letter I received in my email this morning from Terra Sancta Pilgrimages (who I had the pleasure of traveling to the Holy Land with). It offers a first hand account of Christian Palestinians living in the Gaza strip (lest we forget that Palestinian is a nationality, not a religion). Please read!
"We want to share with you a wonderful article about the Catholic Church in Gaza written by a friend of ours who works with the Holy Land. He is a Knight of the Holy Sepulcher. I hope you profit from it and pray for the courageous sisters, priests and laity who stand strong as the living stones of the land there."- Terra Sancta
Gaza: The Best of Us
Gaza. A word that
is rarely associated with positive images. Yet, it is here that the strength
and love of the Church in action is best on display.
According
to Sami El-Yousef, CNEWA's regional director for
Palestine and Israel, “Our churches and Church institutions in Gaza provide a
beacon of hope despite all of the misery, Holy Family School, the Greek
Orthodox parish and its' Cultural Center have all opened their facilities to
hundreds of displaced families, giving them food, clean water and above all a
safe roof over their heads. The Anglican run Al Ahli Hospital, continues to
open up its facilities in this emergency crisis to anyone needing medical
treatment, without charge. Incarnate Word Father Jorge Hernandez continues to
risk his life every day by making home and hospital visits. The Missionaries of
Charity continue to call Gaza home despite the various offers for evacuation.”
The Daughters of Charity and other religious orders have also stayed.
Despite being warned to leave Gaza and with their
residence damaged by Israeli shelling; the Sisters of the Missionaries
of Charity have silently continued their work amid an Israeli troop ground
offensive. “We have taken the Fourth Vow — of giving wholehearted and free
service to the poorest of the poor, no matter what the circumstances. We are
privileged to serve in Gaza, which is one of the poorest places in the Middle
East. As for the raids, we have got used to the sound of the bombs exploding.
We have learnt to live with it,” Sr.Liliet says. Their Convent is in Gaza City
and their Superior Sister Belfina says that they are “not going anywhere” war
or no war. They
have in their care over 24 disabled children and 15 elderly women whom they
will not leave. The House of Christ in Gaza, is a care
home dedicated to looking after them.
Sister Liliet of the Order is from India. “The Indian office in Ramallah has
been calling often, sometimes four times a day, to check on me. It offered to
arrange for my passport and papers so that I can return to India... But I don’t
want to go back,” she says. “The bombings have caused a lot of damage... the
borders are closed. People’s houses are being destroyed. Most of the children
in our convent are from these villages. Their parents leave them here so that
they are safe and are fed properly.” says Sister Liliet.
And this is not the first time the Sisters
chose to remain with the people despite the danger. During the conflict of
2009, the Sisters stayed in Gaza despite being told to leave. They continued to
bathe, feed and care for the incapacitated elderly and the mentally and
physically disabled children as well as they could. Their home is located in
the center of the city just behind Holy Family Catholic Church.
Sister Thertsen Devasia told Catholic News
Service at the time, “We are OK. We go to Mass every day at the Latin church.
Father sends his car for us and brings us back.” Some of the children had been
terrified by the noise of the bombings, she added, but most do not react to
their surroundings. A one year old girl who was living with them screams
whenever she hears loud noises, the nun said. That year also, a 15–year–old
Greek Orthodox girl died from a heart attack; unable to take the strain from
the fear of the aerial attacks. “By the grace of God we are safe and we will
stay here. If something happens to our people we will be with them,” said
Sister Thertsen.
Gaza’s
1300 Christians are made up of some 310 families. “All of them are
concentrated in the city of Gaza, Fr. Raed explains. “So they are in the
middle of the conflict. The whole situation is difficult: no electricity,
no water, day and night bombardments, missiles from both sides." “I am
describing the situation but to see the photos and hear these stories, it’s
really beyond your imagination!" says Fr. Raed. "It’s like in the
Second World War which means wholesale destruction. They are targeting
everybody: civilians, women, children and hospitals. Churches are trying to
help them, providing them with food, with gasoline, with milk for their
children."
Recently, the Holy Family Church in Gaza had
also received an evacuation order warning them that Israel was planning to bomb
their neighborhood that night. Father Raed Abusahlia, president of Caritas
Jerusalem who has been in contact with the parish priest, told Catholic News
Service that Father Jorge Hernandez of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and
the three nuns who live at the parish had nowhere to evacuate the severely
disabled children and elderly women in their care. "How will they
manage to leave? If anyone can intercede with someone in power, and pray,
please do it. "
Since
Israel launched airstrikes against Gaza, it has sent text messages to citizens
to evacuate if they will be near a target. Israel bombed near Holy Family
Catholic Church the morning of July 30. Father Hernandez, said the main target
of the bombing was a home a few meters away from the parish. The home was
completely destroyed, and the parish school, office and some rooms used by the
parish were partially destroyed. Father Abusahlia told CNS all the windows of
the whole compound, as well as that of the Greek Orthodox Church, already were
shattered from previous bombings of buildings around them.
Sami
El-Yousef, CNEWA's Regional Director said that the clinics run by the Near East
Council of Churches in Gaza “are all shut down because they operate in areas
that are way too dangerous to reach.”
Churches have opened their doors to numerous displaced
people, giving refuge to as many as they can. “In our Holy Family school
the number of refugees was days ago, 700. Today, we reached 1,100 people
living there. In the Greek Orthodox church, days ago the number was 1,100
people. Now, it is 1,900 people. Caritas has been providing them with
powdered milk, diapers and gasoline, which is especially important after the
attack on the Gaza electrical plant", according to Fr. Abusahlia.
"Everything
happens around us," he said. "And we cannot do anything. We cannot
evacuate, it is impossible with children. Their families live here. It is more
dangerous to go out than stay here. We try to stay in safer places, always on
the ground floor." Fides quoted Father Hernandez as saying: "We
had a tough night, but we are here."
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Despite the violence, the Church continues to
build bridges. There is the increasing solidarity between the Christian
minority and Muslim majority. This is growing in Gaza as both suffer under
the Israeli offensive, with churches sheltering all religions and with
prayers being offered up on all sides. The church has become a haven not just for
Christian but also hundreds of Muslim families seeking shelter there as the
offensive drags on. “The church has been our hosts for the past two weeks,
offering food, clothes and whatever we needed, their loss is our loss, their
pain is our pain,” says 45-year-old Mr. Abu Khaled. Father Manuel Musallam, a
former priest of Holy Family Parish in Gaza, has always been an advocate for
unity. Father Musallam told the Muslim community, “When they destroy your
mosques, call your prayers from our churches”.
Recently,
an Israeli missile hit the house of the Ayyad family. The Ayyads, who are
Christian, were the first family among the tiny minority in Gaza to be
targeted since the offensive began three weeks ago. Sami El Yousef said that,
although the Israeli army apparently warned the family that their home would
be targeted, a missile flew through their roof and into the home before they
were able to flee. Jilila Ayyad was killed instantly; her son, Jeries,
survived, but sustained extensive burns and shrapnel wounds that required the
amputation of both his legs.
A
memorial service was held on Sunday for Jalila at Porphyrius Greek Orthodox
Church. She
had to be buried three hours after her death “because there were no places left
in the hospitals."
In something that surprised local journalists, both Christians and Muslims
carried out Jalila's remains together. Shared wounds and mourning are
bridging past divides in war torn Gaza. “The world must realize that Israel’s
missiles don’t differentiate between Christians and Muslims,” said Abu Khaled.
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Another example of the Church at its finest are workers
like George Anton, a CNEWA team member. He “leaves his young family on a daily
basis and risks his own life to visit local institutions and individuals in
order to assess the situation on the ground,” CNEWA's Regional Director said. "He
shares the lives of ordinary people affected by the war, the displaced families
housed at the Holy Family Catholic Church, the hundreds of injured patients at
the Anglican-run Al Ahli Hospital and the devout Muslim women and their
children taking refuge at the ancient Greek Orthodox church: which itself had sustained damage by Israeli artillery
shelling."
"Despite
all of the suffering,” El-Yousef writes, “the Christian mission is certainly at
its best. These brave souls — who are personally risking their lives — continue
to comfort the injured and displaced, and provide assistance to the weak and
marginalized with the Gospel in their hearts. Please know that your support and
prayers for the people of Gaza, especially the women and children, are
priceless and help to keep hope and faith alive.”
The
Latin (Catholic) Patriarch in the Holy Land says of the situation: "Their
families are in need of everything. We do what we can with Caritas and the
resources of the Patriarchate, but we get little concrete and effective support
from the outside. Messages and statements we read are not enough to say: we are
with you".
As Sister Thertsen said, "If something
happens to our people we will be with them”. When the best of us like Sister Thertsen can
remain in Gaza while bombs literally fall around them: it is more important
than ever, we take action and reach out to let them know that they are neither alone
nor forgotten.
Interviews compiled from a variety of
sources.
