A devastated daily, and a ravaged territory. More than two years after the outbreak of the war, the Gaza Strip continues to count the dead in Israeli strikes, targeting Hamas cells, according to the army. Father Gabriel Romanelli, author of the book The Ruins and the Light, the moving testimony of the heart of Gaza, describes in his work a land devastated by war.
“Even if the situation has improved in the last six months, the panorama continues to be very serious,” he told RTL. He describes a landscape of devastation, “like after a tsunami or an earthquake: there are even cities that no longer exist, completely erased.” He mentions continuous bombings, relentless drones, accumulating deaths, and insufficient humanitarian aid.
A message of peace for Easter
Interviewed by RTL on the eve of the Easter weekend, the priest discusses a tragic toll particularly felt within the Christian community, as “6% of Gaza’s Christians, Catholics, and Orthodox, were killed during this war,” he recalls.
But the priest also reflects on all the other religious communities in Palestine: “It is a sign of what the entire community is experiencing, not only the Christians, but the Muslims, the civilians… There is not a single home that does not mourn the death of a family member.”
The priest says he keeps the faith and hopes “that one day, this war will end, and they will allow the possibility of starting to rebuild” in the Gaza Strip, taking advantage of the Easter period to send a message of peace: “In the world, it is absolutely necessary to convince ourselves that war should not have the final word. Otherwise, it will be the ruin, not only of Gaza, but of humanity,” he concludes.
The Ruins and the Light, the moving testimony of the heart of Gaza, Father Gabriel Romanelli with Guillaume de Dieuleveult, Editions du Rocher.
