An archbishop in Gaza opens his church for refugees. Hundreds of people throng to see him in search of protection – but even there the shrapnel hit one.
The Church of Saint Porphyrius in olive neighborhood south of Gaza City has become a refugee camp. Hundreds of families seek shelter in their thick walls of the Crusader period. Named the church is named after the saint who tried to convert the people of Gaza in the fifth century to Christianity. For 13 years, stands before her Archbishop Alexios. He has opened its doors now open to all – Christian and Muslim Palestinians.
“We’ll take on anyone, without distinction,” the archbishop told the “Wall Street Journal”. “We are all brothers, we are a family.” Along with the mosque next door coordinates the Bishop Help – refugees get blankets, water and some money for food.
A reporter of the British “Guardian” described what was happening in the church. Therefore tried to catch a little sleep the men on the benches in the courtyard. Some families have spread to the tiled floor inside the church. The Fair on Sunday had to be canceled in view of the situation.
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Many who have sought refuge here are completely exhausted from their experiences. Most are since Sunday streamed out of the district Schedschaija nearby church, where at the weekend, dozens of people were killed within a few hours. The images of the fleeing in panic residents went around the world.
Almost all of the refugees are Muslim. In the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the radical Islamist Hamas, live only about 3,000 Christians, less than one percent of the population.
More than a hundred thousand people inside the Gaza Strip now on the run from the bombs. For 16 days there is war and it is getting worse. Over 600 people have already been killed, nearly four thousand were injured, most of them civilians. According to the UN, has been in the past two days every hour a child killed.
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People seek shelter in places that they feel are safe – in church, in hospitals and in the schools of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency Palestinians (UNRWA). But even in these places the bombs and missiles that can reach them. On Monday, Israeli air strikes hit the center of Gaza. The Israeli army had recently urged people to accurately flee there. The debris buried the German family of Palestinian Kilani among themselves.
A UN school was attacked on Monday for the second time, as an employee just wanted to evaluate the damage of the first Israeli attack. The radical militias in Gaza hiding behind civilian targets. The UN staff have found in recent days twice in empty school buildings missile hiding places.
Even within the church walls no one can weigh in complete safety. The bombs thundered again and again to the immediate vicinity. Splinters and bullets have their mark on the wall of the Protestant school leaving next door, reports the “Guardian”. In the church at the cemetery they have damaged several graves, some were even destroyed. Also, the water tank was hit.
For a pregnant woman who had just brought the fleeing their home behind, all the excitement of renewed shelling was too much, says a reporter for the “Wall Street Journal”. Your contractions started early. The baby came into the Church of Saint Porphyrius to the world, the mother and child are healthy. “There is not only death in Gaza, there is also life,” the archbishop commented on the birth.
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