Our brochure 2012

How Gaza prepares for Christmas

GAZA – Traditionally, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Fouad Twal, visits the parish of the Holy Family in Gaza before Christmas.  He did this year on the third Sunday of Advent and celebrated Christmas Mass for the faithful in Gaza.  The communications team of the Latin Patriarchate was in Gaza three days early and met with the parishioners in anticipation of this visit.

Poor families in Gaza city

December 15, 2012 - Lorenzo and Andres with the coworkers of Andrea's made a visit with the Patriarch just before Christmas and spent most of one day with Sabah visiting five poor families. Andres took these great pictures. You can see their poverty and at the same time the beauty of the children with their shy smiles. We are helping four families now with roof repairs as the winter rains soak the interior of their homes, it's hard to know how they have managed until now!

Post war Gaza - visit decembre 4, 2012

It was a cloudy but warm day to visit for the first time after the war in Gaza. Br. Joe and Fr. Roberto got in this time and I didn’t. They visited two of our schools in the middle camps area. These two villages didn’t receive the shelling like Gaza City received, yet was very affected by the rockets also. Many of the children stopped speaking after the trauma of the shelling.

Testimonials and letters from the parish of Gaza during the offensive "pillar of defense" - Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

Gaza, Sunday, November 18, lives five days under the bombs. The priest of Gaza, Father Jorge Hernandez who was in Argentina for family reasons this morning rejoined his parish and his parishioners “not to leave them alone for one more day.” Testimony of Father Pablo De Santo, Institute of Incarnate Word. 

1. Gaza – The Latin Parish on the fifth day of the offensive

GAZA – On the sixth day of the military operation launched by Israel against the Gaza Strip, the pastor of the Latin Parish, Father Jorge Hernandez (IVE), now back among his parishioners, recounts the continuing and growing fear that everyone is living with.
November 20, 2012

2. Gaza – Update on the offensive: Day 6

 


GAZA – The pastor of Gaza continues to share with us the testimony of the day to day life of his parishioners. This story was written this morning (Tuesday, 20 November) but it did not reach us until this afternoon.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012

3. Gaza – The pastor continues to lift up his voice 

 


GAZA – Initially announced for midnight on Tuesday, November 21, it is being negotiated. Meanwhile, the intense bombardment lasted through the night until 2 in the morning. For now, the hostility and violence continue.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012

4. GAZA – The parish awaits the truce

 


GAZA – The truce is observed today Thursday, November 22 in the Gaza Strip one day after the agreement was reached between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas in power in Gaza, ending a week of armed confrontation that claimed the lives of 155 Palestinians and five Israelis. Father Jorge Hernandez celebrates with his parishioners. 
From Gaza, Holy Land! Thursday, November 22, 2012

5. "Let’s hope that this peace is really stable and sustainable"

 

 

Our team for Gaza met on October 27th

After a long summer break our team for Gaza met on October 27th. It was GREAT being together again. It was a long meetings yet a very important one as we saw where we are at and shared the news of the programs we are running. Some of the topics were:

Visit on october 10, 2012

October tenth Roberto and I went to Gaza only to find that his coordination had expired. He wasn’t able to entre so I tried not to delay my visit. Sabah met me as usual and we visited Fawyseh’s school first in the north. The children were busy in the large hall cutting and pasting learning their shapes. After they all received a sandwich of martadella. I will add the pictures of these activities.

June 2012 visit in Gaza

Toward the end of June a group of us went to visit some of the sick as the schools had closed at the end of May. Again we found the situation of gasoline and fuels very serious. People had electricity only six or eight hours daily. It’s had a great effect on life for everyone as water must be pumped to the roof, washing done, computers, cell phones charged and such in this short time, not to mention having no light after dark. 

A visit to the port of Gaza

 June 4^th, 2012 Fr. Roberto and I went down and began by a visit to the port. By the pictures you can see that there was nothing happening that day. The boats were ideal as the day before one boat was shelled and a fisherman had died.

Our visit to Ali’s family May 5, 2012

Ali is a serious boy of 19 who has lost his left leg and left hip in the war between Fatah and Hamas three years ago. He sits at home and wondering what his future will be. His father has sever heart complications sapping all his energy. Ali is their main concern now as soon after the war Ali was one of the many wounded who went to Turkey for medical help.

April 2012 visit in Gaza

April was a month when the gasoline and cooking fuel was very short and got even worse in the months ahead. Here are pictures of some of the lines of cars which were miles long taking people 4 to 6 hours to get gasoline for their cars. Many people had given up the use of their cars due to the price of the gasoline. More and more people used motorcycles. We took many street scenes.

February-March 2012 visit and meeting in Gaza

February 2012 - We visited the two schools in the north. Arriving at El Arabia there was dark classes due to no electricity. The hot meal was made in Fawyseh’s home and her daughter’s home as a result, as they had electricity. I took pictures of the salad and “majudra”. We asked the teachers what toys they wanted for inside toys and Al Arabia and Amjad wanted the same types of things.

January 2012 visit and meeting in Gaza

January 5th. 2012 - Joe, Thomas and I went down together and had no hitches entering until we found that Joe wasn’t on the Palestinian list in collaboration with the Latin Patriarchate, which states that we are allowed us to enter. Still he was allowed to enter that day much to our relief.