Holy Land patriarch decries Israel’s devastation of Gaza, rising settler attacks in West Bank

(LifeSiteNews) — Holy Land prelates and diplomatic officials convened last Friday to call for the protection of Christians and other Palestinians in the region who continue to endure even daily Israeli aggressions of genocidal violence in Gaza and ongoing terrorist attacks from Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Hosted by Theophilos III, Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, meeting participants included the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches, and Consuls General, senior diplomatic representatives from various countries that maintain consulates in Jerusalem.

In his welcoming address, Theophilos III highlighted the enormous human devastation across the Holy Land, especially in Gaza, where ongoing death, destruction and deprivation continue to be inflicted upon the innocent by the U.S.-backed Israeli army.

He recalled his pastoral visit to the churches in Gaza last July — with Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa — after Israel’s bombing of Holy Family Catholic Church that killed three and injured nine. At the time, Pizzaballa publicly expressed doubts that it was a “mistake” as Israel claimed.

At the gathering last week, His Beatitude Theophilos commended the persistent witness of the Christian communities in Gaza, who continue to serve others with compassion despite the endurance of great suffering. He also emphasized the need for ongoing international involvement to support reconstruction efforts and promote shared interfaith collaboration.

This is Gaza, almost completely destroyed—nearly all civilian structures have been leveled to the ground. pic.twitter.com/4hxIwjpNFW

— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws) April 5, 2025

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has directly killed at least 72,037 Palestinians in Gaza, including approximately 22,000 children, at a confirmed minimum, with at least 171,666 people injured, including over 10,000 children who have lost at least one leg. These figures include at least the 586 Palestinians killed, and 1,558 wounded by the Israeli army since the so-called ceasefire was signed last October. An additional 10,000 Palestinians are missing and presumed dead and buried under the rubble.

READ: Israeli army shot thousands of Palestinians seeking food and later bulldozed corpses: report

According to a rationale presented in a Lancet study in July 2024, one can conservatively estimate total deaths, including indirect fatalities due to causes like starvation, lack of medicine or proper medical care, to include 360,185 (158,481 children).

“The Church cannot turn its face away from human pain,” Theophilos said. “Our Lord teaches us that whatever we do for the least among us, we do for Him. This truth guides our presence and our duty in this land.”

Escalating Israeli settler terrorist attacks in West Bank, stealing of Shepherd’s Field

The Greek Orthodox prelate also lamented the escalating attacks by Israeli settler terrorists on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, highlighting assaults upon the Christian communities of Taybeh and Birzeit. He additionally expressed concern regarding expanding Israeli settlements on stolen Christian land in Beit Sahour just east of Bethlehem, including confiscation of part of Shepherd’s Field where the angel announced the birth of Jesus Christ over 2,000 years ago.

A report presented by a United Nations official in December affirmed that “relentless” illegal Israeli settlement-expansion has reached its highest rate since the UN began tracking these developments in 2017. These illegal actions continue to defy the International Court of Justice, which in July 2024 required Israel cease all new settlement activities, evacuate their approximately 750,000 colonialist “settlers” who are living on stolen Palestinian land, and promptly end its illegal presence in the internationally recognized Palestinian territory.

Though 157 of 193 (81.3%) member states of the United Nations formally recognize the state of Palestine, with around 185 nations (95.8%) calling for a two-state solution, the U.S.-backed Israeli government continues to defy this global consensus, which is also supported by the Holy See. Instead, it insists such statehood will never happen as they continue to terrorize and expel the native Palestinian people from their ancestorial lands.

READ: Pope Leo backs Palestinian state, decries humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israeli settler attacks

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli occupation forces have killed at least 1,112 Palestinian citizens in the occupied West Bank, including 230 children and 24 women.

Israeli restrictions on Christian religious freedom

Patriarch Theophilos III also turned his attention to ongoing restrictions imposed by the Israeli government on freedom of worship in Jerusalem, including limitations on Holy Week observances, particularly that of the ancient Holy Fire Saturday celebration held at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on the Vigil of Easter Sunday according to the Eastern Orthodox calendar.

The Greek Patriarch stressed that access to the holy shrines is a sacred right rooted in centuries of faith and Status Quo agreements.

He called out unprecedented restrictions on the numbers of worshipers permitted to attend such liturgical events, accompanied by aggressive police enforcement, ostensibly to maintain safety, as unacceptable violations of freedom of worship and human dignity.

READ: Christian leaders decry Easter worship crackdown under Israel’s radical Zionist regime

On the Holy Saturday, lsraeli occupation forces assault Christians in Jerusalem city. pic.twitter.com/mflGZJRBQc

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) April 15, 2023

US churches must intervene or Holy Land Christians will be wiped out

Holy Land Churches, religious, and Christian organizations in Palestine have often desperately repeated these same warnings with one voice, particularly to brother and sister Catholics and other Christians in the United States and the broader West.

Earlier this month, The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine issued an urgent international cry for help, requesting “sustained international pressure to ensure effective protection for Palestinian civilians, including Christians,” and to hold the Israeli “occupying power accountable for its crimes under international law.”

READ: Palestinian leaders: Christian communities risk being wiped out if US churches don’t intervene

It further called on Christian churches worldwide “to rise to their moral, spiritual, and ethical responsibilities” in coming to the immediate aid of Christians and other native populations in their land who are suffering under an “escalating campaign” of Israeli settler terrorist attacks against their ancient communities and “to firmly reject all policies that enable forced displacement and the erasure of the ancient Palestinian presence” in their internationally recognized territory.

Palestinian Christians ‘deeply shocked’ by silence of many western churches

Additionally, last November, the largest Christian ecumenical organization in the Holy Land, called Kairos Palestine, launched its second major document calling for continued non-violent Palestinian resistance in the face of Israel’s occupation and genocide while crying out to Christians worldwide for solidarity and assistance.

READ: ‘Faith in a Time of Genocide’: Holy Land Christians call for solidarity, repudiation of Zionism

Supported by the various Catholic and Orthodox Rites in the region, along with Anglican and Lutheran denominations, they wrote in their Kairos II document how as Palestinian Christians they are “deeply shocked by the positions of many churches that either adopted the (Israeli) colonizer’s narrative or remain silent in the face of the genocide of our people.”

“We repeat and emphasize our appeal to the churches of the world — working together with both religious and secular coalitions — to pressure their governments to isolate Israel, hold it accountable, impose sanctions, boycott it, and to ban the export of arms until it complies with international law, ends oppression and tyranny, and adheres to the principles of justice and peace,” the Holy Land Christians wrote.

Matt Gaetz: ‘I stand with these Christians’

Retweeting a post reporting on Friday’s meeting in Jerusalem was former congressman-turned-political-commentator Matt Gaetz, who affirmed, “I stand with these Christians.”

“Christianity is an important part of the Holy Land and it is OK to say so,” said Florida politician said. “Every Christian in America should be concerned about this.”

I stand with these Christians.

Christianity is an important part of the Holy Land and it is OK to say so.

Every Christian in America should be concerned about this. https://t.co/VLUTT9TWRC

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) February 6, 2026

In further comments last Friday, Theophilos III also reiterated the Church’s appeal for full access of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and for the Israeli government to allow children with cancer in the enclave permits to leave and be admitted to Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem in order to receive life-saving treatment.

“Our mission is healing,” he said. “To heal bodies, to heal spirits, and to safeguard the dignity God has bestowed upon every human being.”

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch concluded by reminding the diplomatic corps in Jerusalem that “blessed are the peacemakers,” affirming that justice, mercy, and faithful courage are the only path truly worthy of the Holy City of Jerusalem.

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