Gaza was home to some of the oldest Christian churches and Christian communities in the world.
It is Israel that is destroying them.
I wrote about this in my article:
Revelation Nr. 5: Israelis are killing Christians
Under the British Mandate, about 11% of Palestinians were Christians. But “the vast majority” of these Christians fled or were expelled by Zionist militias from the Jewish-controlled areas of Mandatory Palestine during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, according to Wikipedia.
Jerusalem, 1948. Months before the Nakba. Palestinian Christian family on the way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. [Source: Hidden Palestine]
Christians in Palestine and Israel are under constant attack
The Christians currently living in in Israel-Palestine are of many nationalities, including Arab, Armenian, Greek, Italian and many others. The various denominations include Latin Catholics, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Greek Orthodox, Coptics and others.
A priest walks in the empty Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, a day before Christmas Eve, December 23, 2023. [Source: +972 Magazine | Photo: Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90]
Under Netanyahu’s Likudnik regime, Christians are constantly under attack in Israel-Palestine, especially from Zionist settlers, while Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has refused to condemn the attacks.
Right wing Israeli settlers are attacking Christian tourists and pilgrims to the Holy Land, beating them up, even spitting on them while they walked along the Via Dolorosa during the Via Crucis procession. This would be a hate crime if it happened in any other country, but Security Minister Ben Gvir, who is in charge of crime and policing, dismissed the incidents as “not a crime”, but rather “an old Jewish tradition” and warned those who criticise the practice to “stop slandering Israel”.
Palestinian Greek Orthodox Christians attend a Christmas Eve Mass, led by Greek Orthodox Archbishop Alexios at St. Porphyrios Church in Gaza City, January 7, 2022. [Source: +972 Magazine | Photo: Atia Mohammed/Flash90]
The Palestinian Authority’s Supreme Presidential Committee for Follow-up of Church Affairs in Palestine has criticised Ben Gvir, saying the minister’s remarks
“are not just passing words, but rather a real threat to the lives of Christians… which will have dangerous and unexpected consequences, as racist and extremist practices have become openly practiced against everyone who is not a Jew.”
Indeed, the Israeli government, while paying lip service to “religious freedom”, is doing little to suppress the anti-Christian violence that is ravaging the country.
Israeli forces block the entrance of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the ‘Holy Fire’ mass in East Jerusalem on April 15, 2023 [Source: MEM | Photo: Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images]
Christians in Gaza are targeted for extermination
The genocide that Israel is committing in Gaza is also targeting Christians. The Palestinian Christian population in Gaza is made up of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants — all of whom are now targeted for death by Israel.
On October 19, Israel bombed the Church of Saint Porphyrius, the Gaza Strip’s oldest, killing at least 18 people. The Catholic Holy Family Church and the Gaza Baptist Church have also been attacked.
Mourners attend a funeral for Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack that damaged the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza City on October 20, 2023 [Source: Aljazeera | Photo: Mohammed al-Masri/Reuters]
On December 16, a Christian woman and her daughter who had taken refuge in the Holy Family Catholic church in Gaza City were shot dead by an Israeli sniper. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said the two women were “shot in cold blood” while Pope Francis condemned the murder during his weekly Sunday homily.
It should be noted that the Catholic church was targeted by Israel even after the US Congress had sent Israel the location of the Church and its Convent with a plea to spare this important heritage site from destruction. Israel ignored the American request.
The Holy Family church in Gaza was struck in December 2023. The location of the church was included on a list of coordinates provided to the Israeli military by aid organizations and staffers on Capitol Hill in an effort to protect those sheltering there. [Source: POLITICO | Photo: Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images]
This is the essence of Zionist Nazism: as the Master Race, as “God’s Chosen People”, the Zionists must cleanse the land of “everyone who is not a Jew”.
Indeed, across all of Israel-Palestine, anti-Christian attacks have surged since October 7, even though Christians are not members of Hamas.
The false Israeli narrative about Christians in Gaza
Israel has gone to great lengths to completely ignore the Christians in Palestine, and even greater lengths to promulgate a false narrative that maintains that “there are no churches in Gaza” and “no Christians in Gaza”. In fact, Israelis falsely claim that Hamas “drove out” all the Christians in Gaza.
This false narrative is an integral part of Israel’s overall hasbara framing of the conflict in Israel-Palestine as a religious one, namely that the Palestinians are all Muslim Arabs who are hell-bent on killing Jews. This framing dovetails with Israel’s other narrative, namely that the current conflict did not start in 1948 with the Nakba, but rather is an ancient conflict that “has been going on for thousands of years”.
The Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem recently voiced the Israeli hasbara narrative about Christians in Gaza. [Source: LBC | Photo: LBC/Alamy]
Israel is attacking Christianity EVERYWHERE
The attacks on Christian heritage are not just limited to Gaza, however. On December 23, Israel bombed a 600-year old Christian monastery in Lebanon. The monastery suffered significant damage as a result of the bombing.
Zionists strive to build support among the Christian West by claiming that Muslim “terrorists” are the common enemy. But in reality, for the Israelis, every non-Jew — including Christians — is on their extermination list.
Zionists frame the conflict as being between “Jews and Arabs”, but in reality, Israel is conducting a racist, Nazi-like campaign of extermination of all “non-Jewish” elements in Palestine, regardless of ethnicity or religion.
