Palestinians inspect destroyed residential buildings in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip April 7, 2024, after the Israeli military withdrew most of its ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (OSV News photo/Ahmed Zakot, Reuters) Gaza/Jerusalem (KNA) According to the Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the city of Gaza is partly destroyed beyond recognition. The biggest problems for the civilian population, apart from the ongoing war, are medical care, the hygienic situation and the distribution of humanitarian aid, the Italian religious said on Monday in Jerusalem. He had previously visited the war zone for four days. What he saw there reminded him of a visit to Aleppo in Syria in 2015.
The aim of his visit was a gesture of support. “Even if we have no immediate solutions, it is important to be there,” said Pizzaballa. The cardinal once again spoke out in favour of an end to the war and the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The visit was the start of a joint aid project with the Order of Malta and its aid organisation Malteser International. Although humanitarian supplies have improved compared to the first months of the war, there is still a lack of everything, said Pizzaballa. The Patriarchate is currently looking into ways of providing urgently needed psychological help for the traumatised population.
According to the cardinal, almost 500 people have currently found refuge on the grounds of the Catholic parish in Gaza. In the first months of the war, there were around 700, and the number of Christians in the area, 1,017 before the war began according to the Church, has fallen to around 650. It is currently “unpredictable whether those who left the Gaza Strip during the war will return”. Nevertheless, the Franciscan described the Christian community as “very resilient”. Many are determined to stay. It is therefore important to reassure them that there is a future in Gaza.
The Patriarch described the cohesion of the Christians and the cross-religious “natural solidarity” of the people in Gaza as a sign of hope. A coexistence in which “you cannot say who is Orthodox and who is Catholic” is a message to the churches of the world. He hopes that this will also become a model elsewhere.
“I came across a very tired community that has lost everything, but is very well organised and active,” says Pizzaballa. Despite the pain and fears for the future, he did not hear a word of anger. “We Christians don’t have violence in our blood,” he quoted members of the community. This makes it particularly difficult for the Christian community to understand the current war.