Roman Catholic Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch, arrived in Gaza on Friday for Christmas Mass at the Holy Family parish in Gaza city, which hosts the Palestinian territory's only Roman Catholic church.
The senior churchman “arrived in Gaza today for a pastoral visit to the Holy Family parish, on the eve of the Christmas celebrations”, his office said.
The visit, it said, “reaffirms the enduring bond of the Holy Family parish in Gaza with the wider Diocese of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem”.
During his visit, Cardinal Pizzaballa will review developments in the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip as well as rehabilitation efforts.
He will also lead a Christmas Mass at the Holy Family parish on Sunday, the statement said.
On his last visit to Gaza in July, Cardinal Pizzaballa brought in 500 tonnes of food for residents enduring shortages caused by Israeli restrictions on goods entering the territory.
Cardinal Pizzaballa and his Greek Orthodox counterpart, Theophilus III, were visiting after Israeli fire hit the Holy Family Church, killing three people.
A famine declared in Gaza in August is over thanks to improved access for humanitarian aid, the United Nations said on Friday, but it warned that the food situation remains “critical”.
About 1,000 of Gaza's 2.2 million inhabitants are Christians, most of them Orthodox.
The Latin Patriarchate said 135 Catholics live in Gaza. They sought shelter inside the compound of the Holy Family Church in the first days of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Some members of the Greek Orthodox church joined them in the compound owned by the Roman Catholic church.
