Gaza Catholic school reopens after nearly three years of war

The parish priest of Gaza has said that the re-opening of a Catholic school in the devastated territory offers “a sign of hope” for people who have very little to be hopeful about.

Holy Family School in the old city of Gaza re-opened this morning for approximately 1,000 students, serving the local Holy Family Catholic Parish, but also the wider community, with the majority of the students being Muslim.

Fr. Gabriel Romanelli said that he hoped the re-opening of the school, after almost three years of war since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, will be “like a light in the darkness for the local community that has experienced so much suffering.”

Fr. Romanelli told a delegation from the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which was visiting the Holy Land to assess the needs of the local Church and
hear firsthand about their situation, that “the needs in Gaza are enormous.”

“For the students and the families, re-opening the school will bring some sense of normality. We have worked hard to ensure that it is a safe environment. There is almost nowhere in Gaza that has not been destroyed; destruction is all around. But we have worked hard to make the school a clean environment, where the children, who have been through so much, can feel safe,” Fr. Romanelli told the visiting ACN delegation.

Before the war, five Christian schools operated in Gaza: three Catholic, one Orthodox, and one Evangelical. Christian pupils were spread among these schools. Now, for the first time, all Christian students will attend the same school, Holy Family School.

George Akroush, the director of the Project Development Office of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, told ACN that around 130 Christian pupils will study at Holy Family School, making up approximately 13 percent of the student body.

“For the first time, all Christian students in Gaza will be studying together in one Christian school,” Akroush said. “This creates a strong sense of community and shows that the Church remains close to them, accompanying them in the midst of all they are going through.”

The school is re-opening after many of those internally displaced by the war have returned to their homes. Up to now, more than 450 people had been living in the school, seeking shelter from the Israeli bombardment that followed the Hamas attacks.

Fr. Romanelli said that the parish is committed to ensuring that the people can feel some sense of normality, “even though nothing is normal in Gaza.” Every Sunday, he said, after the parish Mass, he brings parishioners to the beach in Gaza City, “even though the water in the beach is filled with rubble; everywhere in Gaza is filled with rubble. We want to have some time of recreation for the families.”

The war has changed everything in Gaza, Fr. Romanelli told the delegation, and people remain deeply affected. “It is important, also, for the teachers that the school re-opens,” he said. “Many of the teachers are so traumatized, and it is almost as if they are not the same people who we knew before the start of the war.”

Fr. Romanelli said that special attention has been given to designing the school program to take account of what everyone has been through. “In the past, for example, we never had psycho-social support on the school program. Now, that will be an important part of what we do with the children and the teachers,” he said.

“Everyone in Gaza is carrying so much trauma,” he explained. Holy Family School will also serve as a vital base for post-school activities, with Fr. Romanelli saying the children were asking him, “Please keep the school open after-school, Father; we have nothing to do and nowhere to go.”

“For me, the school is a light in the darkness. It means a lot to people. When they see the 1,000 students coming in their uniforms to the school, it shows them that there is a future,” he said.

Aid to the Church in Need, which has a special charism to serve the suffering and persecuted Church, has been providing financial and other support for the Holy Land, including Gaza, for many years.

– Michael Kelly