Latin Patriarchate condemns school raid as Gaza community adapts to war

ROME – The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem on Sunday condemned an Israeli attack on a Catholic school in the Gaza Strip, leaving families housed there traumatized and trying to adjust to a new life amid a war whose end is unclear.

In a statement on July 7, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said it was “following with great concern the news of the raids apparently carried out this morning by the Israeli army against the Sacred Family School in Gaza.”

“Film footage and media reports from the site show, among other things, scenes of civilian casualties and destruction on the site,” it said.

The Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defense Agency reported the deaths of four “martyrs” and several wounded when an Israeli plane struck the Holy Family School in Gaza, which is affiliated with the Holy Family Parish, where around 600 people have sought refuge since the war began last fall.

Ihab al-Ghusain, Hamas’ deputy labor minister, was among those killed in Sunday’s attack. The attack came after Israeli forces attacked a UN-run school on Saturday, killing at least 16 people, including UNRWA staff, according to Gaza authorities. Seventy-five people who had sought shelter there were injured.

RELATED TOPICS: The Gaza conflict is influencing the UK election – and could continue to be influential in the future

Since the war began on October 7, thousands of civilians in Gaza have sought shelter in hospitals, schools and other civilian facilities. The Israeli military has also accused Hamas and other militants of infiltrating these facilities and using them as hideouts, an accusation Hamas denies.

In its statement, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, led by Italian Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said that the Holy Family School had been “a refuge for hundreds of civilians since the beginning of the war. No religious personnel reside in the school.”

“The Latin Patriarchate strongly condemns attacks on civilians or any acts of war that do not ensure that civilians are kept away from the fighting,” they said.

They called for continued “praying for God’s mercy and hoping that the parties will reach an agreement that will put an immediate end to the horrific carnage and humanitarian catastrophe in the region.”

The Gaza war has now lasted nine months. It began on October 7, 2023, after a surprise attack by Hamas militias in Israel that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The militants also took 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza, including 42 who the military believes are dead.

According to the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry, an estimated 38,153 people, again mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military retaliation offensive in Gaza.

This is not the first time that the Catholic community in the Gaza Strip has been directly affected by the war.

In December 2023, an Israeli sniper shot dead two Christian women, a mother and her daughter, who were seeking shelter on the grounds of the parish and school. At the same time, a monastery attached to the parish that cares for the mentally disabled was also hit. Its generator was destroyed, rendering unusable special equipment needed to care for the disabled.

Two months earlier, an air strike on a building near the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrios killed about 18 people, including an employee of an aid organization belonging to the Caritas charity network.

Pope Francis and international organizations such as the United Nations have repeatedly called for the protection of civilians in war.

In a public debate at a Security Council meeting in New York in May, the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations lamented that civilian infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and places of worship had become “devastating targets that disproportionately affect the lives of the innocent and defenseless.”

Only recently, the parish priest of the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza, Father Gabriel Romanalli, was able to return after being unable to return since October last year due to the outbreak of war.

Father Carlos Ferrero, provincial superior of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, who accompanied Romanalli back to Gaza, gave an interview to the Latin Patriarchate, published on its website on Monday, in which he spoke about the current situation on the ground and how families are coping.

Of Romanalli’s return, he said: “I cannot express in words how impressive it was, a great relief not only for the faithful” but also for the assistant pastor, who had been in charge of things alone since the outbreak of the war.

Ferrero said he has visited the Holy Family parish in Gaza several times since taking office as provincial superior in 2019, but was surprised by how much his decision to stay had moved people.

“My presence here at this hour has had its own effect. I realized this when people started asking me if I would leave if the Patriarch had to go back,” he said, adding: “When I told them that I had come to stay as long as God allowed me to be here, they were very happy and I realized that it gave them hope that something good had happened.”

Just being there with the people and praying with them every day is enough to give them a feeling of support, he said, adding that the people of Gaza are “very tired, but they have to endure the situation.”

Most people, he said, have “lost interest in the development of the process for obvious reasons. The only thing they experience is suffering. They hear a good word and then the opposite happens. They are fed up with it!”

“Sometimes it is enough to listen to them, give them words of comfort and help them as best we can,” he said.

Ferrero said Romanalli has set up remedial classes during school holidays and teaches core subjects to the community’s children. He himself has been asked to help with English classes and now teaches children between the third and fourth grades.

“The children have been badly affected by the nine months of war and school closures. They are nervous,” he said, but added: “Little by little they are becoming more interested and learning the basics.”

Ferraro said that in addition to his teaching, he often visits the sick to bring them the Eucharist or administer the anointing of the sick. He also tries to visit a home run by the Missionaries of Charity every day, which cares for children with special needs.

“There are also some older people. They are very happy with a simple greeting, it makes a big difference to them,” he said, adding: “When there is political unrest nearby, I try to be seen and be as close to everyone as possible.”

He said that a parish committee set up at the beginning of the war was helping the parish to stay organized with the resources available and the cooperation of the people housed there.

The young people also help organize games and community activities, he said, adding: “Every day there is something to do. The fact that we can move around and see each other is a blessing because they know that the sisters and fathers are there for them and with them.”

The way the community has been able to organize teachers, classes and other activities is, according to Ferrero, “a testament to their willingness, love and strength of will. It is not easy and we do not have all the resources, but we can do it.”

He reported on the experiences of some members of the congregation. One woman told him: “Outside there is destruction and death, inside there is life! Despite all the obstacles and differences that people find here, it is better to be ‘in the house of Jesus’, in the congregation.”

According to Ferrero, a man from the community told him and Pizzaballa during a four-day visit in May: “We Christians do not have this violence in our blood. That is why we do not understand these fights! Yes, we have our own misunderstandings and fights about different things, we may argue, but never in this way.”

Ferrero told Christians around the world that the people of the Holy Family Parish in Gaza “are counting on your prayers!”

“We pray for you and thank you. We pray for the end of the war and for a better future in peace! May God grant us this through the Virgin Mary!” he said.

Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen