“Gaza continues to shelter more than 400 Christians trapped in the only church, amid hunger and bombing.”

The Christian community in Gaza, a minority in a Strip plagued by horrors, remains virtually “locked up” in the Parish of the Holy Family, the only functioning Catholic church in the territory. According to Argentine parish priest Gabriel Romanelli, more than 400 Christians, along with a group of disabled Muslims, mostly children, have found refuge there since October 2023, facing extreme conditions and without access to humanitarian aid for more than two months.

Every day at 8:00 p.m., the church bells ring, evoking the memory of Pope Francis and marking a moment of communion and hope amid the chaos. Between impromptu Masses and classes to maintain a semblance of normalcy, the community survives with limited aid received during brief respites, when some food trucks managed to enter. However, with the resumption of the blockade in March, the food crisis worsened: lunch consists of rice with a few canned beans, without meat, fish, or fresh vegetables.

The health and logistical situation is equally bleak. Electricity is scarce because there is no fuel, limiting the use of generators. Only solar panels allow people to charge phones or pump water from a rehabilitated well within the compound. Father Romanelli warns of the “extreme urgency”: the community is exhausted, hungry, in constant fear of bombing, and with no sign of possible relief.

The priest makes an urgent plea: that the new pope, Leo XIV, and the international community “keep Gaza in their hearts,” praying for an end to the conflict, the release of hostages, and a real opening of humanitarian access. Only in this way, he says, can “a courageous step toward the peace” that Gaza and the entire Middle East need be taken.