The number of Christians in the Gaza Strip has plummeted from 4,500 to just 1,000 in the past six years, due to the harsh conditions there, according to the pastor of the territory's sole Catholic church.
Fr Mario da Silva told ACI Prensa, sister outlet of the Catholic News Agency, that Gazans 'live like it's an open air prison since we can't leave. We can't visit relatives, look for work, medicine or good hospitals on the outside'.
Gaza, a 141 square mile area of Palestine, is home to 1.8 million people, many of whom have never left because of an Israeli-imposed economic blockade since 2007, since when it has been ruled by Hamas.
Fr da Silva, a priest with the Institute of the Incarnate Word, told the agency that when he arrived in Gaza in 2012 'the situation was already very difficult. Over time, you would hope the situation would get better, but it's only gotten worse'.
He underlined the fact that inhabitants have only three hours of electricity a day, and there is a shortage of drinking water.
The priest added that most Gazans are unemployed, and those who do work live on 'about $150-200 a month'.
Fr da Silva said: 'It's really a prison. People don't have any money and the situation is terrible. There is widespread poverty.'
He explained that despite many not being able to leave, there has been an exodus of Palestinian Christians taking advantage of occasional opportunities to get out by visiting holy sites in the region, notably Jerusalem.
'Every year Christians have one permit to leave and visit the holy places on Easter and Christmas,' and a many of them never return, he said.
In order to encourage Christians to stay, Fr da Silva's Holy Family parish is working with 12 religious sisters, of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, the Missionaries of Charity, and the Sisters of the Rosary congregations, he explained. 'We're doing two things: first, preaching Christ and the importance of Christians in the Holy Land; preaching the importance of forgiveness and of carrying the cross is what we most try to do.'
He also seeks to help with material aid. 'For example, with the help of institutions such as the Pontifical Mission or the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Church tries to give work to more that 30 young people so they won't leave, because they are mainly the ones who leave.'
The parish also cares for non-Christians. 'The Christian community is very small and there are 2 million Muslims. They are also in great need. We have always opened the doors of our schools or our church during times of war to take in those seeking refuge,' he said.
The priest explained that Christians are not heavily threatened – so far – in the Hamas-run Strip. 'There is not a very great persecution of Christians,' he said. However, he added: 'Though there is now a lot of fear with the news that the Islamic State has arrived, coming from the Sinai Peninsula, in Egypt ... There have already been threats. There is also fear of the Salafist groups who are coming in from the south.'
He added: 'In fact, when we have problems with Muslims who want to do something against the church, we've asked the government to protect us and they have done so.'
This Easter, there was a decrease in the number of permits given by Israel for Palestinian Christians to visit holy places in its territory. Fr da Silva added: 'It was also very sad because Israel always gives permission for Christians so they can visit the holy places for Christmas and Easter,' but this year they only gave 300 permits instead of the 700 normally granted. These permits were 'for children and the elderly, who are really the people who can't go out by themselves. Very few people actually went,' he said.
However, he said 'there was joy because Christ has risen and because our salvation comes from that, which is much more important than our material life; but on the human level it was a very sad Easter...Pray much for this, which is what we mainly ask for, because only God can change the situation we're going through in these countries here in the Middle East.'
Donald Macintyre, the author of Gaza: Preparing for Dawn, told Christian Today: 'I have met Fr De Silva in Gaza; as a parish priest he is very conscientious, as are the sisters he works with. One significant aspect of the tiny Christian community in Gaza is how strongly they identify with and of course share the sufferings of most Muslim Gazans, though of course with the added fears of being threatened by a small minority of Salafist extremists who are at odds with with the large majority of Palestinians in Gaza, including, to be fair, the de facto Hamas authority in the Strip.'
