Stories from Gaza: ‘Our only hope is in God for a miracle’

2023-10-18T064452Z_586132579_RC2FU3A1BW98_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS

Just two weeks ago, Rt Rev Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, visited the Christian-run Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians were last night killed in an explosion. As tensions in the region mount, he says the innocent should not pay for the crimes of Hamas

“Our mission is love”, remarked Suhaila Tarzai, the chief administrator of the Christian-run Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. That was just three days before the Hamas atrocities in Southern Israel.

I was with Suhaila, a Palestinian woman in her 60s with a broad, compassionate smile, in the meeting room of the hospital enjoying a lunch of hummus and falafel with her senior team. She is one of the 1,000 or so Palestinian Christians left in Gaza.

I had travelled there with Most Rev Hosam Naoum, another Palestinian Christian and the Bishop of Jerusalem, to see the incredible work of this 80-bed hospital. I was given a pink ribbon to mark breast cancer awareness week and saw their new cancer diagnostic facilities.