|PIC1|“The people are weeping – men, women and children are weeping. They are desperate to find ways to feed themselves, how to ensure their protection.”

This is the reality facing the people of Gaza after a week of violence between Israel and Hamas militants, according to Mgr Manuel Musallam of Gaza.

As aid agencies warn of a humanitarian crisis and hospitals overwhelmed by the huge number of wounded, Mgr Musallam told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need that the people were “struggling to stay alive” in the midst of bomb attacks and an acute shortage of food, water and shelter.

Aid to the Church in Need has pledged to send emergency assistance to the beleaguered community.

More than 400 people are believed to have died in the first week of Israeli airstrikes. Christine Wadi Turk, a 16-year-old student of Gaza City’s Holy Family School died on Friday morning. Her funeral was held later in the day at the Holy Family Church, conducted by Mgr Musallam.

He told ACN that although the cause of her death was unconfirmed, “shock and fear” caused by bombs falling near to her home had undoubtedly played a part.

According to ACN’s head of press John Pontifex, an announcement was expected shortly about the size of the charity’s aid package to Gaza, with project chiefs saying it was urgent to act quickly.

Mgr Musallam echoed their sense of urgency.

“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.”

It was too unsafe for the people to leave their homes, the Catholic priest said, so Holy Family Parish cancelled Christmas Midnight Mass and Mass on New Year’s Day and instead held smaller Masses in a school chapel.

Speaking of the practical challenges in caring for his flock, Mgr Musallam, “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,” he said.

“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.’”

Keeping up the hopes of the faithful is another challenge in a region where Christians number only 5,000 out of Gaza’s total population of 1.5 million.

“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,” he said.

“The people are weeping – men, women and children are weeping. They are desperate to find ways to feed themselves, how to ensure their protection.”

Church leaders have condemned the violence in the region, among them Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem.

During the traditional Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, he told the congregation that peace came from God.

"War does not produce peace, prisons do not guarantee stability. The highest of walls do not assure security. Peace is a gift of God, and only God can give that peace."

On the web: www.acnuk.org