A simple sign with black printed text hangs from a cross outside the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City. “Due to the current situation there are no holiday celebrations, with respect,” it reads. Since Oct 7, Wael Salem has slept inside the ancient walls of the church, believed to be the third oldest in the world, crammed in amongst 300 of the who remain in the Gaza Strip.
It is the second Christmas he has spent inside the Greek Orthodox church and the second without celebrations. Seeking shelter, safety and community, most of Gaza’s Christians have taken refuge in the enclave’s last three churches – Saint Porphyrius, the Holy Family Church and the Gaza Baptist Church – to live where they hoped the bombs would not fall. But none have survived the war unscathed.
Life inside the church is nothing like before, Mr Salem told The Telegraph. “It is crowded with displaced people, there are not enough places to sleep. We lack food and many of us have suffered from malnutrition.
” The 40-year-old added: “We miss our lives, we do not sleep well, we used to visit the church for happy occasions, for Christmas celebrations, now it houses us in very difficult conditions.” Plenty of buildings near the church have been reduced to rubble. In October, the UN estimated that up to 70 per cent of Gaza’s buildings, including 227,000 houses, had been damaged.
Palestinian authorities reported that 611 mosques had also been destroyed as well as its three churches damaged. Des.
