GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: The faithful walked slowly in a procession past the stone facade of Gaza’s only Catholic church on Palm Sunday, gathering to pray for peace as war raged around them.
Holy Family Church’s tranquil courtyard, filled with dozens of children and older people, belied the humanitarian crisis happening beyond its gates in Gaza City.
Inside the church, worshippers in their dress clothes lined the wooden pews decorated with palm fronds for the service marking the start of Easter week.
“Our celebration of Palm Sunday is an opportunity for hope, goodness and peace for us and for the entire world,” said a young man speaking from the pulpit.
“In order to renew our hearts and make them full of love, giving and peace,” he said, dressed in an ankle-length red robe.
Solemn-looking altar boys in the front row listened quietly, while parishioners with drawn faces after months of war filled the other rows.
The church in northern Gaza is a short drive from Al-Shifa hospital and its neighborhood, where heavy combat has raged between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters.
A recent UN-backed assessment said Gaza’s northern area would fall into famine by May unless there was urgent action.
Heavy combat has made it particularly difficult to get emergency food aid to the some 300,000 the UN estimates are still in the area.
“This year, we don’t have the heart to celebrate,” Nabila Saleh, a sister at the Holy Family church told AFP.
“It’s true that we decorated, but we don’t feel the joy of other years.”
The Gaza war was sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run territory said the total death toll during almost six months of war now stood at 32,226 — most of them women and children.
Though Holy Family’s facade, courtyard and worship area inside the church are mostly intact, the site has been deeply affected by the fighting.
Christian families from Gaza have found refuge inside and in December the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem reported two Christian women were killed by Israeli fire at the church.
The Israeli army said it had “no reports of a hit on the church,” stressing it “does not target civilians, no matter their religion.”
Far from Gaza, Palestinian Christians marked Palm Sunday in Jerusalem with the fate of the people trapped by war weighing heavily upon them.
Thousands walked from Bethphage Church into the Old City, recreating Jesus’s arrival during which crowds laid palm fronds at his feet.
“It is very sad,” said worshipper Hanan Nasrallah, 62. “Hopefully God will bring peace to everybody and next year hopefully everybody will celebrate together.”
Palestinian Christians also criticized tightened movement restrictions on those in the occupied West Bank, which they said prevented many from joining on the festivities in Jerusalem.
“Many of my friends from the West Bank, they weren’t able to come,” said 30-year-old Palestinian Hanna Tams, a dancer and choreographer.
“The Israeli authorities are not giving them permission,” he said, calling it “really heartbreaking.”
“I wish people in Gaza all the best and I wish they were safe and I wish they were here with us,” he added.
Gaza Christians ask for peace on Palm Sunday
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Gaza Christians ask for peace on Palm Sunday
- Far from Gaza, Palestinian Christians marked Palm Sunday in Jerusalem with the fate of the people trapped by war weighing heavily upon them
Red Cross chief declares Gaza ‘worse than hell on earth’
- Palestinians are being stripped of their human dignity, Mirjana Spoljaric tells BBC
- She calls on world leaders to take action to bring the conflict to an end
LONDON: The situation in Gaza has become “worse than hell on earth,” the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross has said.
“Humanity is failing in Gaza,” Mirjana Spoljaric told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Wednesday. “We cannot continue to watch what is happening.”
The ICRC, a global organization assisting people affected by conflict, has about 300 staff in Gaza.
It runs a field hospital in Rafah that was swamped with casualties in recent days after witnesses described Israeli troops opening fire on crowds trying to access food aid.
Spoljaric said that the situation in the territory was “surpassing any acceptable legal, moral and humane standard.”
“The fact that we are watching a people being entirely stripped of its human dignity should really shock our collective conscience.”
She called on world leaders to do more to bring the conflict to an end because the consequences would haunt them and “reach their doorsteps.”
Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 54,000 people since October 2023, mostly women and children.
The offensive was launched after a Hamas-led attack on Israel killed 1,200 people and seized dozens of hostages.
Spoljaric said that while every state had a right to defend itself, there could be “no excuse for depriving children from their access to food, health and security.”
She added: “There are rules in the conduct of hostilities that every party to every conflict has to respect.”
International condemnation of Israel has increased in recent weeks after its military pushed to take full control of Gaza after severing all food and aid supplies to the territory’s population.
Late last month, some aid deliveries resumed after Israel set up a new aid system that bypassed the UN and is now run by a newly formed US organization.
Operations at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s three aid delivery sites were paused on Wednesday after dozens of Palestinians were killed by gunfire near one of the sites.
Israeli settlers establish illegal outpost near Palestinian Authority’s administrative city of Ramallah
- Settlers establish site on ruins of displaced Palestinian family’s home
- Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reported in May attempts by settlers to establish 15 new illegal outposts in West Bank
LONDON: Israeli settlers have established a new outpost on land belonging to Palestinians east of Ramallah, the administrative city of the Palestinian Authority.
The settlers have established the outpost on the ruins of a home belonging to a Palestinian family that was forcibly displaced nearly a year ago following a series of attacks in the village of Al-Taybeh, the Palestine News Agency reported.
Israeli settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal under international law and have long been viewed as hindrances to the establishment of a viable Palestinian state and to achieving peace.
The PA’s affiliated Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reported in May on attempts by Israeli settlers to establish 15 new illegal outposts in the West Bank, mainly on agricultural and pastoral land.
These outposts are distributed across several governorates, including six in Ramallah and Al-Bireh; two in Salfit, Tubas, and Bethlehem; and one each in Jericho and Nablus.
Israel defense ministry says arms exports hit all time high in 2024
- “Israel again reached an all-time peak in defense exports in 2024,” the ministry said
JERUSALEM: Israel’s defense ministry said Wednesday that its arms exports hit an all-time high of more than $14.7 billion in 2024, with a sharp rise in deals with Arab Gulf states, despite international criticism of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
“Israel again reached an all-time peak in defense exports in 2024, marking the fourth consecutive record-breaking year in the scope of defense agreements,” the ministry, which oversees and approves the exports of Israel’s defense industries, said in a statement.
Suspected crypto kidnappings mastermind arrested in Morocco
- France thanks Morocco for arresting 24-year-old after kidnappings targeting French crypto entrepreneurs
PARIS: France’s justice minister on Wednesday said that Morocco had arrested a man suspected of ordering a series of kidnappings targeting cryptocurrency entrepreneurs in France.
“I sincerely thank Morocco for this arrest, which demonstrates excellent judicial cooperation between our two countries, particularly in the fight against organized crime,” Gerald Darmanin said on X.
Turkiye’s AJet to start flights to Syria’s Damascus
- AJet said flights from Sabiha Gokcen airport will begin from Jun. 16
- Flights to Damascus from Ankara will start from Jun. 17
ISTANBUL: Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet said it will start flights to Damascus International from Istanbul and Ankara airports in mid-June.
AJet said in a statement that flights from Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport will begin from Jun. 16. Flights will initially take place four times per week before operating daily from July, it added.
Flights to Damascus from the Turkish capital Ankara will start from Jun. 17, three-times per week, the carrier also said.
Turkish Airlines resumed flights to Damascus in January after a 13-year suspension.
Turkiye, a close ally of the new government in Damascus, has pledged to support the country’s reconstruction. Ankara has already helped with the improvement and maintenance of Syria’s airports, the Turkish transport minister has said.
