About the Gaza Strip:
The Gaza strip is a territory about 25 miles long and 7 1/2 miles wide bounded by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. It is a territory, rather than a country, with a complicated past and present. It had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire and then later the British empire from the 1920’s until the creation of Israel in 1948. War broke out in response to the creation of the state of Israel, and some some 200,000 Palestinians uprooted as a result. Finally, Egypt ruled Gaza until 1967, when it lost it to Israel in the Six-Day War. Israel then took over administration of the Gaza Strip.
Along with the West Bank, it makes up the Palestinian Territories. More exactly, the term “occupied Palestinian territory” is the geographical area of the Palestinian territory that has been occupied by Israel since 1967.
In 2005, Israel withdrew troops from Gaza and abandoned settlements of Israeli citizens. Today Gaza is one of two territories, along with the West Bank, where Palestinians exercise limited self-government. Unfortunately this is an uneasy relationship and violence breaks out quite often.
Since 2007, the strip has been ruled by the terrorist group Hamas, which has fought four wars against Israel since taking power and continues to foment violence, most recently in October 2023. You can read a comment from the pastor here at National Catholic Register.
Of course, after the terror attacks of October 2023, there is a great deal of violence in the area.
Despite a majority Muslim population, there is a very small population of Catholic Christians in the Gaza Strip, and one Catholic church…..located in Gaza City.
About Holy Family Church in Gaza City:
Holy Family Church is the only Catholic church here in the Gaza Strip.
The parish includes a school which provides a Christian education to children in Gaza, and it works closely with the nearby religious congregations of the Missionaries of Charity; Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará; and the Rosary Sisters. The Missionaries of Charity care for the elderly and disabled, and the Rosary Sisters operate a school.
The community is served by priests from the Institute of the Incarnate Word.
Address: GFF2+JQQ, Gaza Strip
They do not have a website.
Update: On July 17, 2025 the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem reported that two people were killed, and several were wounded, in an apparent Israeli attack on Holy Family Church. The attack was one of those tragedies of war….triggering a debate as to whether the Israeli army purposely shelled the church.
Cardinal Pizzaballa later visited Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza.