About 1,000 Palestinian Muslims fleeing Israeli shells devastating their Gaza neighborhood have found shelter in the city's 12th century Greek Orthodox Church, the Reuters website reports today (July 23, 2014).
Despite its thick walls dating back to the Crusades, the Church of Saint Porphyrius was still not a very safe haven. Shortly after they arrived, Israeli aircraft bombed a nearby field, spraying shrapnel on the church and damaging graves.
But children from the Shejaia district, where some 72 Palestinians -- many of the women and children -- were killed during fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants on July 20, were busy playing football in the yard yesterday.
"We have opened the church in order to help people. This is the duty of the church and we are doing all we can to help them," Archbishop Alexios told Reuters as the sounds of small children echoed outside his office at the church. "At the beginning there were 600 people, and today they became a thousand -- mostly children and women. Some of those children are a week old," said the head of Gaza's Greek Orthodox minority -- the largest of the Christian communities in Gaza.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment