Christians in Gaza, Huddled in Churches, Celebrate Christmas

Some say that the community is in danger of losing its 1,600-year foothold in the enclave and that it is far from certain those who have fled will ever feel safe enough to return home.

Ramez Souri, a Christian in Gaza, says he has little to celebrate this Christmas. Fourteen months into the war, he still sleeps on the grounds of St. Porphyrius, the ancient Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City where an Israeli airstrike last year killed his three children.

“This year, we will conduct our religious rites and that’s it,” Mr. Souri, 47, said. “We’re still in mourning and far too sad to celebrate, or do anything except to pray for peace.”

Since the beginning of the war, hundreds of Palestinian Christians have huddled in two churches in Gaza City: St. Porphyrius and the Holy Family Church, a Catholic parish. They have remained in the sanctuaries despite an Israeli military campaign that has laid waste to much of the city.

But some now say the community may be in danger of losing its 1,600-year foothold in the territory. Like many Gazans, some Christians simply hope to escape the enclave after witnessing months of deprivation, loss and bombardment. For those who have already left, whether they will ever feel safe enough to return home, even after the war is over, is far from clear.

“The future of the Christian presence in Gaza is being tested,” said Kamel Ayyad, a St. Porphyrius church official who fled to Egypt in November 2023, after Hamas led its brutal attack on Israel that ignited the war. “I love my homeland — we all do — but I won’t return immediately before assessing the political and economic situation.”

Estimates of Gaza’s Christian population range from roughly 800 to more than 1,000, although hundreds are believed to have left for Egypt, Canada and Australia since the war began. They include both Catholics, who celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25, and Orthodox, who will observe the festival on Jan. 7.

The Rev. Munther Isaac, a Palestinian pastor in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said many Christians who had once committed to staying in Gaza had seen their homes destroyed and now simply wanted to keep their children safe.

“I hope I am wrong, but I will be surprised if there was a strong Christian presence after the war in Gaza,” said Mr. Isaac. “They are telling us: ‘We just want to leave, we just want to escape this hell.’”

On Sunday, a major Israeli military body said it was willing to work on coordinating the exit of Christians to third countries. The matter places Christian leaders in a difficult position, Mr. Isaac said. “The church does not want to be responsible for emptying Gaza of the Christian community,” he said.

Before the war, many of the Christians in Gaza were successful professionals who lived in Rimal, a once prosperous neighborhood in Gaza City. They often sent their children to the day school at the Holy Family, as well as worshiping at St. Porphyrius, which is one of the oldest churches in the world.

Pope Francis, who has called for a cease-fire, has said he regularly speaks with a priest at Holy Family, the only Catholic church in Gaza.

“Yesterday, children were bombed,” Pope Francis said on Saturday, in an apparent reference to Israeli military strikes in Gaza. “This is cruelty. This is not war. I want to say it because it touches the heart.”

Like other Gazans, many Christians in the enclave say their lives have long been overshadowed by a cycle of wars with Israel and an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that tightly regulates travel and commerce. The territory’s Islamist government, led by Hamas, has also made them especially anxious.

Hamas made some overtures to Christians, such as having senior officials publicly welcome the Christian holidays. But the group’s rule has nonetheless had a chilling effect on the community, said Khalil Sayegh, a Gazan political analyst and Christian.

Before Hamas seized full control of Gaza in 2007, Christians would often place a large Christmas tree near a major square in Gaza City. Acolytes festooned in colorful uniforms marched in the streets, sharing festive music on brass instruments to bring in the holidays.

After Hamas took over Gaza, Christians observed the holidays mostly in the privacy of their homes and churches, said Mr. Sayegh, who now lives in Washington. Under Hamas “there was tolerance for Christians to worship in their churches, to march on church property,” he said. “But on the other hand, no freedom.”

That fragile dynamic was upended by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage. Israel responded with a devastating campaign of airstrikes and a ground invasion that have killed more than 45,000 people, destroyed much of the enclave and displaced nearly two million.

Nearly a week after the war began, the Israeli military ordered a mass evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza City. While Christians were well integrated in their affluent Gaza City neighborhoods, several said they were too afraid to travel to the more conservative south where they were ordered to seek shelter. Instead, hundreds packed into the two churches, hoping for safety.

The community set up committees to handle food, shelter, health and other critical needs, said George Anton, a Gazan who shelters at the Holy Family Church. “We quickly understood that this wasn’t like previous wars, where the international community would intervene after a week or two,” he said

But on Oct. 19, an Israeli airstrike targeted a structure near St. Porphyrius, which the Israeli military claimed was being used by Hamas. The bombardment also wrecked a building inside the church compound where displaced people had been sheltering, killing at least 18, including women and children.

Just meters away, Mr. Souri said he saw the building collapse. Rescuers later found the bodies of all three of his children — Suheil, 14; Julie, 12; and Majd, 11. He buried them in a plot that he sees almost every day as he wanders through the church grounds, waiting for the war to end.

The Israeli military has said that it considers the two Christian churches in Gaza to be “sensitive sites” and that it takes precautions to avoid harming them. But the airstrike on St. Porphyrius was not the last episode. In December 2023, as Israeli ground forces fought their way through Gaza City, two women were killed in the Holy Family Church, prompting condemnation from the Vatican.

The Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem said the women were killed by Israeli sniper fire. The Israeli military has said an initial investigation found that a Hamas fighter had fired at Israeli troops near the church, prompting them to target nearby “enemy lookouts,” but it did not directly say how the two women were killed.

But Christians in Gaza have continued to lean on their faith as the war drums on. Communal solidarity persists, even under the weight of hunger and displacement. They also receive support from churches around the world.

Within the relative safety of church walls, the Holy Family day school opened its doors again earlier this year, said Mr. Ayyad, the church official. Almost all of Gaza’s other schools are either shuttered, destroyed or have been converted into shelters for the displaced.

Last week, some Christians managed to make a holiday treat called burbara, a wheat berry pudding. The colorful dessert is usually associated with treasured holiday traditions when Gazan Christians invite neighbors into their homes.

This year, Gazans at St. Porphyrius poured whatever wheat, nuts and sugar they could find into large communal vats. They stewed the mixture before pouring small amounts onto plates for hundreds of hungry people.

“Even though it didn’t taste as it ought to, we wanted to do something to show that we’re still here, despite it all,” Mr. Souri said.