The vivid testimony of Fr Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest to Gaza’s tiny and besieged Catholic community, is a reminder that the faint flickers of hope found in the early promise of a ceasefire have been cruelly extinguished.
“Gaza is a prison - it’s become a cage, a giant cage,” he says. People in Gaza, Muslim and Christian alike, remain caught between the jaws of Israel’s merciless attacks and a humanitarian emergency exacerbated by shortages of food, water and medicine.
To underline Fr Romanelli’s analysis, Gaza’s health ministry said yesterday that 60,000 children in the Gaza Strip are “at risk of serious health complications due to malnutrition”.
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There was an influx of aid into Gaza when the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel - based on hostage and prisoner releases - came into force in mid-January. But Israel resumed its blockade of vital supplies on March 2.
Just over two weeks later it unleashed a fresh wave of intense air strikes and bombings on Gaza.
And, once again, Israel is using humanitarian aid as an instrument of war.
Israel’s suggestions to allow aid to resume have so far been disingenuous. United Nations secretary-general António Guterres was correct to denounce Israel’s latest proposal, describing it as a way of “further controlling and callously limiting aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour”.
As babies go hungry, the bombs continue to rain down as Israeli jets swoop on defenceless civilians; at least 29 were killed and 55 injured yesterday in at attack on Gaza city, the latest deadly entry in a remorseless litany.
Since the ceasefire broke down, there is a sense that the international community has taken its eye off the unfolding hell in Gaza. That is in large part due to the unpredictable - perhaps unhinged - behaviour of US President Donald Trump, including his global tariff war. He could bring positive influence to bear on Benjamin Netanyahu if he wished, but that seems a forlorn hope for now.
Since the ceasefire broke down, there is a sense that the international community has taken its eye off the unfolding hell in Gaza
There is little doubt that the tiny Christian community in Gaza is bearing a heavy cross this Lent. Yet even amid that darkness there is hope, an Easter spark glowing in the gloom of Gaza’s cage.
Fr Romanelli speaks of how Christians and non-Christians are helping each other, of how the congregation of the Church of the Holy Family are, with their Muslim neighbours, sheltering refugees.
Phone calls from Pope Francis, fighting his own battles, continue to sustain Fr Romanelli and his flock.
The Holy Land has seen miracles before. However distant it might seem today, a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis is attainable.
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