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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Politics

FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Gaza s christians refuse to abandon churches before israeli attack | History Defined

Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinian Christians Saad Salama and Foumia Ayyad, who were killed in an Israeli strike on the Holy Family Church, at another Gaza City church, Saint Porphyrius, on July 17, 2025 [Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters]

Gaza City, Gaza Strip – In the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, Fouad Abu Youssef, 34, wears a tattered, worn-out shirt as he sifts through a heap of salvaged clothes, remnants of what had been his home, hoping to find a change of clothes for his five-year-old daughter, Layla.

In the past two years of Israel’s war on Gaza, Fouad, a member of Gaza’s small Christian minority, has buried his sister after an air strike and seen his own home and his family’s house in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood collapse. Conditions grew so dire that Fouad, his elderly parents and five siblings with their families were forced to live in a nearby cemetery before finally finding refuge in the church.

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