Finally, there’s been some good news for hundreds of Palestinian Christians who have been trapped in two Gaza churches since the war erupted two and a half months ago. A relatively small shipment of food, water and other humanitarian relief supplies was able to be delivered to the besieged churches.
The Christian-run All Israel News reports much more food and medical aid is needed, but it writes that these deliveries will ease the suffering after weeks of watching their situation going from bad to worse to desperate. Hungry children have been crying themselves to sleep in the churches. Adults have been reduced to eating crumbs.
Over the weekend, the water tank at the Roman Catholic Holy Family Church was severely damaged by gun battles and explosions around the church compound. Late on Sunday night, after weeks of some of the most intense house-to-house, street-by-street fighting between Hamas and Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the IDF was able to secure the neighbourhoods around the churches to clear the way for the deliveries.
A United Nations convoy’s effort to reach the churches with food last week failed when it was attacked by Hamas gunmen who shot the driver and looted all the supplies.
Meanwhile, the IDF is denying that its soldiers are to blame for the fatal sniper shooting of a Christian mother and her adult daughter at the Holy Family Church. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem accused the Israelis of murder. “No warning was given, no notification was provided. They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents,” it said in a statement. The IDF says it is conducting a thorough review of the incident.
It prompted Pope Francis to say during his weekly Angelus prayer: “Unarmed civilians are targets for bombs and gunfire. And this has happened even within the parish complex of the Holy Family, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, people who are sick and have disabilities, sisters.”
A second Messianic Christian IDF soldier has died in Gaza. 20 year old Urija Bayer was shot in the south of Gaza. Another Christian soldier David Ratner was killed during the initial Hamas attacks on October 7 while fighting terrorists who were infiltrating a military base.
Photo: Israel Defence Forces (IDF)
