An uncertain Christmas in Gaza

The brave Catholics of Holy Family Parish turn to Jesus, Mary and Joseph this Christmas and always, writes Michael Kelly

or the first time in three years, the Christians of Gaza decorated their Christmas trees with a cautious hope for more peaceful times. Hope is always tempered by caution in Gaza. They’ve been here before, and children who have seen things no adult should witness find it hard to see beyond the rubble that now marks their communities.

The people of Holy Family – who have been supported for many years by the kind benefactors of Aid to the Church in Need Ireland – celebrate Christmas during an unstable ceasefire. From the heart of the devastated city, Fr Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest, describes a disastrous sanitary situation and a daily reality marked by a scarcity of means for rebuilding. Speaking to ACN ahead of Christmas Masses and carol services, the missionary who even at the height of the war refused to leave his people, has pleaded with Irish Catholics to pray for peace in the Holy Land.

Support

Christmas preparations have been taking place in an atmosphere of disquiet, according to Fr Romanelli – the weariness of war obvious in his voice. “The world should know that there are over two million people here who have nothing and need everything,” he warned, more than two months after the beginning of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

When the war in Gaza started following the deadly Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, the tiny Christian community had a stark choice to make. Do they remain in their homes isolated from one another, or do they try to come and be together.

The answer was swift, and soon around 850 Christians – men, women and children – gathered together everything they could carry and moved into the holy Family Church, the only Catholic Church in Gaza.

The support provided through this funding has been crucial in maintaining dignity and basic living standards for the displaced community”

At the papal charity Aid to the Church in Need – which has been supporting struggling Christian communities since 1947 – our response was swift. We have a particular mission to support Christians wherever the community is in danger of dying out. Life has never been easy for the Christians of Gaza, yet they have lived lives of quiet hope alongside their Muslim friends and neighbours in the Gaza Strip.

This war poses an existential threat to them – hundreds of Christians with dual nationalities were able to leave, but for the around 450 Palestinians or so who remain Holy Family Church has been their makeshift home for 804 days.

Thanks to the generosity of so many Irish benefactors, people just like you dear reader, ACN Ireland has been able to literally keep the lights on in Holy Family Parish.

We have been able to provide fuel for the generator, which has helped maintain reliable electricity, providing two-hour power cycles for lighting, medical equipment, and electrical devices. The power has also enabled consistent mobile phone charging, preserving communication channels for the displaced community who are concerned about relatives and friends cut off in other parts of the Gaza Strip.

Thanks to ACN Ireland, the generator has also powered water pumps to transfer well water to rooftop storage tanks, supported essential hygiene and sanitation needs, including shower facilities, toilet operations, laundry services and general cleaning and maintenance.

The support from ACN Ireland benefactors has proven essential in maintaining basic living conditions for displaced individuals during an acute humanitarian crisis.

The support provided through this funding has been crucial in maintaining dignity and basic living standards for the displaced community, enabling the continuation of essential services and supporting emergency response capabilities.

Peace

Fr Romanelli says the situation for many people is still desperate. “The international community should make it clear that according to International law, people have the right to live in their own land,” says the priest of the only Catholic parish in Gaza.

“We should pray. We should pray a lot. For peace, and for all the inhabitants of this Holy Land, be it Gaza, Palestine or Israel,” he adds.

People are still trying to recover since the fragile truce began on October 10, but there is a lack of machinery required to clear out streets and land, and most vital infrastructure – running water, sewage systems, electricity – is damaged.

“There is no sign of reconstruction, the lack of means causes suffering and the lack of prospects leaves people agitated,” he says. Fr Romanelli makes a request for material, spiritual and moral support for everybody, both Christians and Muslims, because “everyone is human, they suffer in the flesh, in the soul and in the heart”.

Even before the war, the Church in the Holy Land with the support of ACN has always made sure to be close to the Catholic community”

Despite airstrikes that took place on November 19 and 22, the ceasefire has allowed for a faint but real respite in the fighting. Humanitarian aid has been arriving more regularly. “Since the fighting stopped, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem [on which the parish in Gaza depends] has managed to send us important aid with which we have been able to help over 12,000 families”.

Other organisations have provided fruit, vegetables and basic products. Nonetheless, the needs largely outweigh the provisions, and even though prices have decreased, they are still too high for many people. Fr Romanelli has been trying to obtain chocolate “whatever the cost,” in the hope that “it will do everyone good”.

Over the past years, and even before the war, the Church in the Holy Land with the support of ACN has always made sure to be close to the Catholic community in Gaza, celebrating Christmas with the Holy Family Parish in the days preceding December 25. Will this be possible this year in the context of the ceasefire? For now, the only thing they are sure of is that the option of exit permits that allowed some Gazan Christians to leave the territory to celebrate Christmas with their families in Bethlehem is not even on the table.

School has also started up again, with classes for 150 displaced children and teenagers providing as good a start to the 2025-2026 academic year as possible, given the circumstances. Unfortunately, there is no room to welcome more students, since the three Catholic schools in Gaza, which suffered damage during the war, continue to shelter many displaced families.

The Catholic compound in Gaza is currently home to 450 displaced people, including 30 Muslims with disabilities and one Muslim family. Most Christians in Gaza, both Catholic and Orthodox, are also living there. Around 60 people have managed to move to other lodgings or even return to their homes, or what is left of them, but they continue to visit the compound regularly to obtain drinking water and charge their phones.

Please pray for the small Catholic community in Gaza. Just like they pray for us every night in Holy Family Parish.

 

At Aid to the Church in Need Ireland, we have promised the people of Holy Family and Gaza that we will stand by them – and we will help them rebuild with faith, hope and love. Will you keep that promise with us?

 

To donate to the vital work of ACN, enquire about leaving a legacy or to find out more please call Dublin 01 837 7516 (00 353 1 837 7516 from outside RoI), write to Aid to

the Church in Need, 151 St Mobhi Road, Dublin, D09 HC82 or email info@acnireland.org. You can also donate online at www.acnirelandorg