Worshippers outside the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City for Palm Sunday, Mar. 24, 2024. (Credit: AFP)
The faces were solemn and the step was heavy for the procession. At the Holy Family, the only Catholic church in Gaza City, the faithful had come to pray "for peace" on Palm Sunday.
Palestinian Christians celebrating Palm Sunday in Gaza. (Credit: AFP)
There were dozens of them, perhaps a hundred, gathered to mark the start of Holy Week in war-ravaged Gaza. Under a springtime sun, the bells rang out. In the courtyard of the parish complex, decorated with palm leaves, and the church door adorned with branches, the faithful slowly marched in procession and sang, olive branch in hand in the aptly-named Olive Quarter.
"Our Palm Sunday celebration is a moment of hope, for good and peace, for us and the whole world," said the young officiant in the light-walled church. It's an opportunity "to purify our hearts and fill them with love, generosity and peace."
In the front row sat serious altar boys and young servers in red alb and white surplice. Behind them flocked members with drawn features, dark eyes and somber faces. "This time, we're not in the mood to celebrate," Sister Nabila Saleh told AFP. "We've indeed decorated, but we're not feeling the sensations of other years."
Not spared
"We're all in the same boat. We're all suffering the same difficulties and the same horrors of war. We hope that the coming year will be one of kindness and peace for our beloved land, Palestine," added the nun.
The light-colored stone church is still standing. Its site also housed a school. But it has not been spared by the war, which began with Hamas' attack on Oct. 7. Several Christian families from Gaza have taken refuge here since the start of the Israeli offensive in retaliation, which has claimed more than 32,200 lives in the Gaza Strip, the majority of them civilians, according to Gaza's ministry of health.
In December, two women, a mother and daughter, were killed there, hit by gunfire as they walked towards the convent.
Palestinians celebrating Palm Sunday in front of the Church of the Holy Family, Gaza, Mar. 24, 2024. (Credit: AFP)
The following day, Pope Francis deplored the fact that "defenseless civilians are the target ... of sniper fire." "This happened even inside the parish of the Holy Family, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, sick or disabled people."
According to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which had blamed "an Israeli sniper ... a shell fired by a tank" had fallen on the convent of Mother Teresa's Sisters of Charity, located in the same complex and housing sick people.
The Israeli army denied any involvement.
The Pope has consistently called for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages kidnapped on the day of the Hamas attack and still being held in Gaza, meeting with representatives and members of all religions to discuss the issue. On Oct. 9, he telephoned Gabriel Romanelli, the priest of the Holy Family in Gaza, to assure the territory's small Catholic community of his "solidarity and prayers."
The Gaza Strip, where the majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants are Muslim, is home to around a thousand Christians, most of them Orthodox.