The St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City is in the red zone of an Israeli military evacuation map that was published online, The Times of Israel reported on Wednesday, as the IDF is moving forward with its plans to conquer the city and forcibly displace its Palestinian population.
The Times report said that the IDF had ordered the St. Porphyrius Church and its compounds, where hundreds of Palestinians are sheltering, to be evacuated. However, the church stated in a Facebook post later in the day that it had not been instructed to evacuate the displaced people.
“We are all safe. No one has contacted us regarding the evacuation of the displaced people from the church,” the church wrote in Arabic, according to Google Translate.
The Times report said that the nearby Holy Family Catholic Church remains outside of the evacuation zone for now. A day earlier, the Orthodox Patriarchate and the Latin Patriarchate released a joint statement that said their clergy and nuns helping the displaced Palestinians will not leave the churches despite Israel’s planned offensive.
“We all share the same feelings,” Father Gabriel Romanelli, a Catholic priest from Argentina at the Holy Family Church, told Vatican News on Wednesday. “Seeing the needs of the elderly, of those who are anxious, of those who are sad and anguished, of people with disabilities, we understand that the Lord is calling us to continue serving them — because otherwise, how will those people survive, how will they manage?”
Romanelli was injured by the recent Israeli tank shelling that hit the Holy Family Church and killed three Palestinian Christians. The St. Porphyrius Church has also been hit by Israeli attacks, including an October 2023 airstrike that killed 18 Palestinian civilians, including relatives of former US House Rep. Justin Amash.
An Orthodox Christian source in Gaza told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Wednesday that the Israeli escalations in the area have made some families consider the option of leaving Gaza with the hopes of returning one day. “Right now, displacement within the Strip is tantamount to certain death, so we won’t leave,” he said.
“But if there’s an option to leave altogether, we’ll be forced to do it with the hope of someday returning. We were born here, and we love it in its entirety, but we’ve reached the point that we can’t take it anymore. We’re living on borrowed time,” the source added.
He said that about one-third of the estimated 600 people sheltering at the churches held visas, but that “at this point, no one will allow them to leave.” The Latin Patriarchate told AFP on Tuesday that there are just 645 Catholic and Orthodox Christians left in the Gaza Strip, including five priests and five nuns, an ancient community that faces possible extinction.
Israel’s plan for Gaza City involves forcing the more than 1 million Palestinian civilians living there to the south, and from there, the Israeli government wants to pressure them to leave Gaza altogether, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have made clear their ultimate goal is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory.
