(LifeSiteNews) — Despite ongoing violations of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City is striving to prepare worthily for Christmas despite the post-apocalyptic devastation inflicted upon the Strip’s entire population by the U.S.-backed Israeli army.
“The world should know that there are over two million people here who have nothing and need everything,” emphasized Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest in the compound, in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
Though the October 10 ceasefire deal has significantly decreased the ongoing attacks of the Israeli military upon the small and densely populated region, the Gaza Health Ministry reported Wednesday that Israeli forces had killed 360 Palestinians and wounded 922 since this agreement was presumed to take effect.
Such strikes include Israeli warplanes bombing tents housing displaced Palestinian families yesterday in al-Mawasi, killing at least five people, including two children and wounding dozens.
Aftermath of an Israeli strike that hit tents near Khan Younis, southern Gaza, today and killed at least five people, including two children (footage via the Anadolu Agency) pic.twitter.com/95aatgSrhr
— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) December 3, 2025
Despite the dire situation, Romanelli told ACN the parish is doing its best to prepare to celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“We are deciding what to organize and we have begun rehearsing choirs and dabkes – Palestinian group dances – and we may even hold a small show outside the walls of our compound, if conditions permit,” the priest said.
Romanelli hopes to be able to visit the sick and bring small gifts. These include those in the parish compound and very few who have ventured back to what is left of their homes.
The priest is reportedly doing his best to obtain chocolate “whatever the cost … (hoping) it will do everyone good” in building morale among the people.
After Israel’s imposing a permanent blockade on Gaza in 2007, the army has regularly restricted food imports, allowing only minimum calorie levels necessary for the population’s survival, and often banning “luxuries” such as chocolate, potato chips, fruits, children’s toys, wedding dresses and toilet paper.
Ensayo de las Hermanas Servidoras junto a un grupo de niños para el Pesebre Viviente de Navidad.
Preparando con alegría el nacimiento del Señor. ✨🎄 pic.twitter.com/MnU4htRcou— P. Gabriel Romanelli (@PGabRomanelli) December 3, 2025
Fortunately, with the October 10 ceasefire agreement having gone into effect, Fr. Romanelli said emergency supplies have been arriving more regularly.
“Since the fighting stopped, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has managed to send us important aid with which we have been able to help over 12,000 families,” he told ACN.
Residing in the Church’s compound are about 450 people, mostly Catholic and Orthodox, including more than 50 disabled individuals, among them, 30 Muslims.
It was due to these disabled and other elderly that Romanelli and other religious on site, including the Missionaries of Charity, refused to obey the Israeli army’s October 1 order to evacuate Gaza City or be “considered terrorists and terror supporters” subject to the “full force” of the Israeli military’s operations that were in the process of systematically destroying the entire city.
Since “trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence” for many of the disabled, the religious and clergy who have been attending to the vulnerable “decided to remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds” despite the obvious risks to their lives.
READ: Israel: Christian nuns and clergy will be considered terrorists if they don’t leave Gaza
According to the ACN report, around 60 people have managed to move out of the Holy Family Parish compound, with some returning to their homes despite many being damaged. However, these families still rely on the parish for drinking water and electricity to charge their mobile phones.
“Some have tried to clean their houses or what is left of them” Fr. Romanelli said, adding that heavy machinery is needed to clear the damage done by U.S.-backed Israeli bombings. He added that most water sanitation and electricity infrastructure that serves the civilian population was destroyed during these bombings.
“There is no sign of reconstruction, the lack of means causes suffering, and the lack of prospects leaves people agitated,” the priest lamented.
Romanelli became well-known as the recipient of a near daily call from Pope Francis after Israel’s ongoing genocidal response to the Hamas break-out attack of October 7, 2023.
Additionally, in July, the parish priest was injured, along with eight others, when the Israeli army directly struck the Holy Family Church compound with a tank shell, killing three.
This attack came just three days after a highly visible press conference conducted by Holy Land Christian prelates charging Israeli authorities with facilitating terrorist attacks by radical Jewish “settlers” against Christians and other Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The timing of the murderous attack upon Holy Family Parish reportedly caused Church authorities to consider the possibility that the strike was “a deliberate act of retaliation” for the prelates’ earlier press statement.
READ: Trump’s reaction ‘not positive’ to Israeli army’s strike on Catholic church in Gaza
Despite so many harrowing difficulties experienced by the Christian and broader Palestinian communities in Gaza over the last 26 months, it is Fr. Romanelli’s desire that the Christmas season in this devastated region remain one of prayer and peace.
“We should pray. We should pray a lot – for peace, and for all the inhabitants of this Holy Land, be it Gaza, Palestine or Israel,” he concluded.
Updated reports on Wednesday from the Gaza Health Ministry confirm the deaths of 70,117 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, the majority of whom are women and children. They also state the number of injured has risen to 170,999, with many more trapped under rubble and inaccessible to rescue and civil defense teams.
Studies indicate the ministry’s death figures are most likely a significant undercount.
Cantando a la Santísima Virgen María en medio de las explosiones, seguimos confiando en su protección. pic.twitter.com/nuWsPlRz7Q
— P. Gabriel Romanelli (@PGabRomanelli) December 2, 2025
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