Displacement from Gaza City would be “nothing less than a death sentence” for people sheltering in the Christian compounds there, according to the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic Patriarchs of Jerusalem, reported in the Church Times last week. In a statement a week ago, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Theophilos III of Jerusalem, and the Roman Catholic ‘Latin’ Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, warned that the mass displacement of Gazans would spell disaster for their communities.
Both churches are actively sheltering vulnerable people, including the elderly, women and children, many of whom, the statement said, are “weakened and malnourished due to the hardships of the last month”. In addition many disabled people live in the Roman Catholic Holy Family compound, where they are cared for by nuns, the statement said.
“Leaving Gaza City and trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence,” the Patriarchs said. As a result, clergy and nuns had decided to stay in the city, regardless of the Israeli ground invasion.
The Church Times also reported that a group of academics declared this week that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), which has 500 members from around the world, has published a resolution in which they declared that Israel’s actions met the definition for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, the paper said.
Read the full article in the Church Times here.
Picture above: Omar Mukhtar Street, the main street in Gaza City, in February 2025. Picture by Jaber Jehad Badwan – Jaber Jehad Badwan, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=160402196