This comes despite the peace agreement between Hamas and Israel.
By Catholics for Catholics
An armistice between Hamas and Israel seems like a done deal, but for Christian dwellers in the occupied West Bank, things do not look like they will get better, but worse.
According to a story in Newsmax, for the dwellers of Taybeh, in the West Bank, which was formerly called Ephraim in the New Testament, what the Catholics of the Roman and Greek Melkite, and Greek Orthodox rights want most is independence and peace for this small part of the Holy Land.
But as the Newsmax report indicates, the hopes of the Christian dwellers of the West Bank feel ever more distant as they wrestle with the threats of violence from Jewish settlers and the escalating restrictions on movement imposed by Israel. Many also say they fear Islamist radicalization will grow in the area as conflicts worsen across the region.
“The situation in the West Bank, in my opinion, needs another agreement — to move away and expel the settlers from our lands,” the Rev. Bashar Fawadleh, parish priest of Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church, told The Associated Press. “We are so tired of this life.”
Christians praying at a church in Gaza while Israeli airstrikes land around them. pic.twitter.com/T9D4WZz2FC
— Dylan Griffith (@LivingDadJoke) August 31, 2024
The West Bank is the area between Israel and Jordan that Israel occupied in the 1967 war and that Palestinians want for a future state, together with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Israel seized them from Jordan and Egypt in that war.
The Israel-Hamas war that has destroyed Gaza since Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, has distressed the strip’s small Christian community. The Catholic church was hit by an Israeli shell in July, though it’s functioning again.
Violence has also surged in the West Bank. Israeli military operations have grown to respond to what the army calls an increasing militant threat, most visible in frequent attacks at checkpoints.
Palestinians say uninvolved civilians have been caught up in the raids and blame the army for not defending them from near-daily violence by settlers.
On a recent Sunday, families went to Mass at the church, where a Vatican and a Palestinian flag flank the altar, and a tall mosaic illustrates Jesus’ arrival in the village, then called Ephraim.
Other families congregated at St. George Greek Orthodox Church. Filled with icons written in Arabic and Greek, it’s just down the street, overlooking hillside villas among olive trees.
“We’re struggling too much. We don’t see the light,” said its priest, the Rev. David Khoury. “We feel like we are in a big prison.”
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