On Sunday there was an almost unbelievable event in Gaza City. Devout Christians held a Palm Sunday procession in front of the only Catholic church in Gaza – while war raged around them. Among other things, a prayer for peace was made.
The Palm Sunday ceremony took place in the courtyard of the “Church of the Holy Family.” Entire families with children as well as old people gathered for the service at the beginning of Holy Week.
The spokesman for the Council of Heads of Catholic Churches in Jerusalem, Wadie Abu Nasser, told Israel Today:
“It is actually inconceivable that this ceremony took place. It was held on the church grounds. So not in the city, outside the church grounds. People are practically locked in the church grounds. There is a courtyard and several buildings around the church, and the people, as you can see from the photos, are inside the grounds, not outside the grounds. Of course, people there live in a very, very poor reality. They suffer from it. They don’t have enough food, they don’t have enough medicine. The people there need treatment and it is difficult to get enough food. People complain to me that the help they receive is too little and insufficient. These are very, very difficult times in Gaza.”
But the Christians in Gaza will not give up hope, Abu Nasser stressed. “It’s about keeping hope alive, that’s the point, and our hope is in our Lord. The situation there is very difficult. But people don’t give up. It is important to keep faith and hope in people’s hearts. That’s what mobilizes them. I talk to them almost every day. We try to maintain optimism despite all the challenges.”
The church in northern Gaza is a short drive from Al-Shifa Hospital, where the Israeli army is conducting an operation to crush the resurgent Hamas.
