Gaza's Holy Family Church marks Christmas after two-year pause amid Israeli onslaught

Palestinian Christians celebrated Christmas Mass at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City on Wednesday evening, where congregants lit the church's tree for the first time in two years.

Ahead of the service, attendees sought to bring the joy of Christmas to the church by decorating the tree and setting up a grotto. 

The Mass was later held inside the Latin Monastery compound, with congregants marking the holy ceremony amid the visible ruins of their home city. 

One participant told Anadolu that this year's festivities are relatively better than before the ceasefire, despite the ongoing suffering of Gazans.

Others told reporters about their experiences of being displaced after Israel began its onslaught in October 2023, with many having lost friends and relatives.

The number of Palestinian Christians in Gaza has dwindled in the decades of Israeli occupation, with an estimated 1,000 living in the enclave before Israel's latest war. A few hundred are believed to remain in Gaza today.

Gaza is also home to some of the world's oldest churches, including the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City. The church was among hundreds of holy sites struck by Israeli forces during the war.

During the war, the Holy Family Church became a place of refuge for hundreds of Christians of different denominations, as Israeli forces besieged the area.

In the early weeks of the onslaught, an Israeli sniper killed two Palestinian Christians, mother and daughter, Nahida and Sama as they attempted to reach a bathroom on the church grounds.

The killings were slammed by the late Pope Francis as an act of "terrorism".