With Gaza’s health system collapsing and food nearly gone, Catholic and Orthodox churches shelter families with nowhere else to go.
(LifeSiteNews) — Gaza’s Christian community is under severe strain, with Catholic and Orthodox churches overwhelmed by displaced families, food supplies dwindling, and some forced to return to shattered homes amid relentless warfare.
Joseph Hazboun, regional director for the Pontifical Mission in Palestine and Israel, toldVatican News that nearly 2 million Gazans – 90 percent of the population – are now displaced, living in “overcrowded, unsafe conditions” and facing “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity.
“Health conditions are rapidly deteriorating,” Hazboun wrote in a late May report. “Infants, the elderly and pregnant women are at heightened risk of disease, malnutrition and preventable deaths.”
Holy Family Church – the only Catholic Church in Gaza – is sheltering around 400 people. St. Porphyrios Orthodox Church – which was struck in an allegedly accidental IDF airstrike in 2023, killing 18 Palestinian civilians – holds another 150.
Both are so overcrowded that some families have chosen to return to their ruined homes. Humanitarian aid is scarce, distributed only twice a month, and over 90 community kitchens have shut down due to fuel shortages.
