As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas, most of Gaza’s small Christian community is sheltering within the confines of two churches, terrified, grieving and threatened with destruction. For nine weeks, they endured Israel’s ferocious military assault, alongside the rest of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians. They have been deprived of food, water, electricity and fuel and now face starvation and disease.
Last Saturday, an Israeli sniper killed Nahida Anton as she walked through the compound of the Church of the Holy Family. Her daughter Samar tried to carry Nahida to safety, but was also shot and killed. Seven other people were injured while trying to rescue them. The Pope condemned the attack on the Holy Family Church and the indiscriminate brutality of the Israeli military campaign. call This is “terrorism”.
Before these killings, an Israeli tank had targeted the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Teresa destroying its electrical generator. According to the Latin Patriarchate, the convent, which houses 54 disabled people, some of whom rely on respirators, is now uninhabitable.
My own family was not safe from the carnage. On November 12, an Israeli sniper killed my 84-year-old cousin Elham.
At the start of the assault, Elham took refuge in the grounds of the Orthodox Church of Saint-Porphyrius, one of the oldest churches in the world, where my father, aunts, uncles and grandmother kindergarten were baptized, and where my relatives still practice their worship. . Israel bombed this complex on October 20, killing 18 Palestinian Christians, many of whom were our relatives. After surviving this attack, Elham moved to the Church of the Holy Family, joining the majority of Gaza’s Christian community taking refuge there.
Elham, a longtime music teacher beloved by generations of her students, was known for her cheerful personality. But she was also strong in spirit. Ignoring advice not to venture outside the church, she grew tired of living in cramped conditions and insisted on going to check on her house. Israeli sniper shot him in the leg before she gets there.
Neighbors desperately tried to summon an ambulance, but with communications virtually cut off and Gaza’s health system on the brink of collapse, no medical help could be summoned. No one else was able to rescue her for fear of suffering the same fate. Elham bled to death for several hours.
Gaza’s Palestinian Christian community has declined rapidly in recent decades, and now numbers around 1,000 people. But it wasn’t always this way. Gaza was a prosperous place with a rich agricultural sector in the early 20th century. My family, the Farahs and the Jahshans, were large and prosperous clans with roots in Gaza stretching back centuries. One of my great-uncles was a grain merchant who exported barley used by British breweries.
The flight of Christians from Gaza is largely due to Israel’s oppressive military occupation for 56 years, and in particular the last 16 years of stifling blockade and repeated devastating military attacks, of which the current one is by far the worst. more brutal. Long before this latest war began, Gaza had become virtually uninhabitable due to occupation and siege. Now every trace of what Gaza once was has been erased.
Israeli attacks on Christians and churches in Gaza are part of a broader campaign of war crimes and expulsions of Palestinians, which also includes attacks on hospitals, ambulances, schools, mosques, bakeries , UN premises, and the destruction of entire neighborhoods in one of the most densely populated places on the planet.
More than 19,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past two and a half months, including more than 7,000 children. At least 300 health workers have been killed, including more than 100 doctors. Gaza City, which a few months ago was the largest Palestinian city in the world, has been virtually destroyed and depopulated. Human Rights Watch has accused Israel to use starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.
Israeli attacks on churches and other war crimes are happening in full view of the world, including the Biden administration, which has continued to supply more weapons to the Israeli military even as the president admits that its bombings were “indiscriminate”. The Israeli military campaign in Gaza aims to drive Palestinians from their homes and lands and send a clear message that nowhere is safe.
President Biden can stop this crazy massacre that will not bring peace or make anyone safer, Israelis or Palestinians. Biden must demand an immediate ceasefire; otherwise, by next Christmas there might be no Christians left in Gaza.
Farah is co-founder of the Palestinian Christian Peace Alliance.
