Due To Israel’s Attacks, Christian Palestinians In Gaza Decided To Cancel All Easter Festivities
“We can’t feel the feast at all, we are very sad for our situation and for the people and we are struggling, just like Christ has struggled, we are struggling.”
Hundreds of Christians in Palestine, where the religion was born, marked Easter at Jerusalem’s churches and the Israel-occupied West Bank, with a notably smaller crowd due to the ongoing Israel’s war on Gaza.
In years past, thousands of faithful Christians gathered in churches, but this year, only a few people attended the main Catholic Easter Sunday service at Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre Church, which is said to have been erected over Jesus’ tomb.
Israel also imposed severe restrictions on Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem entering Jerusalem’s Old City to mark the occasion.
Israeli authorities required Muslim and Christian Palestinians to secure permits in order to cross military checkpoints surrounding the holy city to visit religious landmarks such as the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, according to the TRT World.
Israeli police claimed that they enforced limitations over safety reasons due to the ceremony of “Holy Fire” at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where a flame from Jesus’s tomb is used to ignite the candles of the worshippers.
Even prior to the war, Palestinian Christians had had to get prior permission to visit the Old City for celebrations.
Similar Easter celebrations also took place in the Holy Family Church, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of displaced Palestinians have been sheltering, with limited food as well as medical supplies.
“The condition of the Christians is the same as that of the Palestinian people, some people have been lost, some people have died, some patients need medications, there’s need for food, of course there’s a need for security because there’s war, there’s a military operation, strikes, shrapnel, all of these things have affected (us), some areas inside the churches have been hit leading to a large number of wounded people. There’s pain,” the Director of operations, Mussa Ayad, at The Holy Family Church told Reuters.
“We can’t feel the feast at all, we are very sad for our situation and for the people and we are struggling, just like Christ has struggled, we are struggling.” Nadia Masoud, a Christian Palestinian who was displaced and sheltering in the church, told Reuters.
According to the 2022 international religious freedom report by the US State Department, there are around 50,000 Christians in the West Bank and Jerusalem. In addition, nearly 1,300 Christians are residing in Gaza.
Israel’s attacks have killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza since Oct. 7.
