Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is to send emergency help as the crisis deepens in Gaza.
The charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians has pledged assistance after receiving first-hand accounts of the violence in which hundreds are thought to have died since the launching of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. Among the reports received by ACN was news of the death of 16-year-old Christine Wadi Turk, a student of Gaza City’s Holy Family School, who died early on Friday morning, Jan 2nd.
Speaking from Gaza just hours after conducting the girl’s funeral in Holy Family Church, Monsignor Manuel Musallam told ACN that the cause of death was as yet unconfirmed but that “shock and fear” were at least partly to blame with explosions taking place very near her home. In a moving account, Msgr. Musallam spoke of a community “struggling to stay alive,” dodging bombs and suffering from an acute shortage of food, water and shelter. The priest said it was too unsafe for the people to leave their homes.
ACN is to provide urgent help in a massively overpopulated region where, according to the UN, unemployment runs at up to 40 percent and where nearly 30 percent of the people have no running water. About half of the population are children. ACN project chiefs said an announcement was expected shortly about the size of the charity’s aid package to Gaza, adding that it was urgent to act quickly.
Stressing the need for immediate assistance, Msgr. Musallam said, “Most of the families are terrified and find it very difficult. They are suffering from bombs which are going off all around us.” He said, “People are fearful but they do not want to give up.” He also added “As a priest, I know I should speak about hope but people say to me ‘What hope is there?’ We have to remind people to be faithful to the Gospel and try as much as possible to keep hope….The people are weeping – men, women and children are weeping. They are desperate to find ways to feed themselves, how to ensure their protection.”
Holy Family Parish had cancelled Christmas Midnight Mass and Mass on New Year’s Day with smaller Masses taking place in a school chapel. It comes as Church leaders led by Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem have united to condemn the violence in the region. Out of a population of 1.5 million in the Gaza Strip, there are 5,000 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox, including 300 Catholics (Latin Rite).
Msgr. Musallam continued by saying, “I am unable to see many of my parishioners but I send them regular SMS messages offering them a spiritual word to encourage them and to help them to pray a bit….At the start of each hour, we agreed to say a prayer: ‘God of peace, give our country peace; God of mercy, give our country mercy.’” He described how families had evacuated their homes only to return to find them in ruins because of their proximity to military and government buildings targeted by the Israelis.
Support for the Holy Land and across the Middle East is key to Aid to the Church in Need’s work especially after Pope Benedict XVI declared the troubled region a priority for the charity at celebrations marking ACN’s 60th anniversary in autumn 2007.
