Christian Palestinians attend Christmas Eve mass at church in Gaza City where they sought shelter

(26 Dec 2023) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS Gaza City, Gaza Strip - 24 December 2023 1. Various of priest during mass HEADLINE: Gaza Christians attend Christmas Eve mass 2. Various of mass ANNOTATION: Gaza’s tiny Christian community held a Christmas Eve service in the Holy Family Church. ANNOTATION: It is the only Catholic Church in Gaza City and some Christians sought refuge in the parish when the war started. ANNOTATION: The service was held late Sunday, but details only emerged on Monday due to frequent internet outages. ANNOTATION: Catholic officials said that two Christian women were killed by Israeli sniper fire at the compound earlier this month. 3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Kamal Ayad, relative of victims killed in the church compound: “First of all, this celebration is different from all others. This is a feast of pain for the Palestinian people, for our Christian nation, and for our Islamic nation. We are here, especially in Gaza, this is not a feast, this is not and these are not the circumstances (of a feast/ a celebration). My wife and daughter were martyred four, five days ago. A sniper killed them inside the church sanctuary. They did not carry weapons and had no connection to the resistance or other organizations.“ 4. Various of people singing during mass ANNOTATION: The Israeli military said troops were targeting Hamas militants and were investigating the incident. STORYLINE: Dozens of members of Gaza’s tiny Christian community held a Christmas Eve service on Sunday in the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, which they have also used as a shelter. It is the only Catholic Church in Gaza City and a number of Christians sought refuge in the parish when the war started and hundreds of thousands were displaced to the south of the strip. The service was held late Sunday, but details only emerged on Monday due to frequent internet outages. The parish, considered a safe place for those living there, saw two of its faithful killed by Israeli soldiers earlier this month. Days before Christmas, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said two Christian women at the church compound in Gaza were killed by Israeli sniper fire. The killing of the women was also referred by Pope Francis who earlier this month said “unarmed civilians are being bombed and shot at, and this has even happened inside the Holy Family parish complex, where there are no terrorists but families, children and sick people with disabilities, nuns.” The Israeli military said troops were targeting Hamas militants in the area; it said it was investigating the incident and takes such reports very seriously. Kamal Ayad, whose wife and daughter were killed in the shooting, was amongst those at the mass. “This is not a feast,” said Ayad. “This is a feast of pain for the Palestinian people, for our Christian nation, and for our Islamic nation.” He said his only wish was for “peace and hope for a cease-fire.” The war has devastated large parts of Gaza, killed more than 20,600 Palestinians and displaced almost all of the territory’s 2.3 million people. U.N. officials have warned that a quarter of the population is starving under Israel’s siege of the territory, which allows in only a trickle of supplies. The war erupted following the Hamas attack in Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages, some of them released during a one-week cease-fire in November. =========================================================== Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: ​​ Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive: