Dozens of members of Gaza’s tiny Christian community held a Christmas Eve service on Sunday in the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, which they have also used as a shelter.
It is the only Catholic Church in Gaza City and several Christians sought refuge in the parish when Israel’s war started and hundreds of thousands were displaced to the south of the strip.
The service was held late Sunday, but details only emerged on Monday due to frequent internet outages.
The parish, considered a safe place for those living there, saw two of its faithful killed earlier this month, by Israeli soldiers.
Days before Christmas, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said two Christian women at the church compound in Gaza had been killed by Israeli sniper fire.
The killing of the women was also referred to by Pope Francis who earlier this month said, “Unarmed civilians are being bombed and shot at, and this has even happened inside the Holy Family parish complex, where there are no terrorists but families, children and sick people with disabilities, nuns.”
The Israeli military said troops were targeting Hamas militants in the area; it said it was investigating the incident and takes such reports very seriously.
Kamal Ayad, whose wife and daughter were killed in the shooting, was amongst those at the mass.
“This is not a feast,” said Ayad. “This is a feast of pain for the Palestinian people, for our Christian nation, and for our Islamic nation.”
He said his only wish was for “peace and hope for a cease-fire.”
The war has devastated large parts of Gaza, killed more than 20,600 Palestinians, and displaced almost all of the territory’s 2.3 million people.
UN officials have warned that a quarter of the population is starving under Israel’s siege of the territory, which allows in only a trickle of supplies.
