Fr Nikodemus Schnabel OSB reported that the abbey, just outside the Zion Gate into the walled old city, had to cancel its study year for foreign students, while the number of pilgrims visiting both in Jerusalem and at its monastery on the Sea of Galilee had fallen from thousands a day to a trickle.
The German-born abbot told the Swiss Church news agency kath.ch that the Berlin governed had urged the monks to quit Israel after anti-Christian vandalism that began more than a decade ago, but said the community had decided to stay.
“There are people in Jerusalem who hate us ... because we are Christians,” Schnabel said. “It’s a small group of Jewish extremists. We experience spitting attacks when we go out the door, verbal attacks, but also deliberate jostling … almost every day.”
He said these had increased since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s latest government took office in late 2022, with a far-right minister for national security.
“Fortunately, there are also many wonderful local Jews who stand by our side in friendship,” he added. “We are a place where everyone is welcome, be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim or atheist.”
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, sent a letter to Pope Francis expressing the “most sincere gratitude” of Catholic leaders and the faithful of the Holy Land for his closeness, insisting: “We will not surrender to hatred.”
Published in the 11 October edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the patriarch said that “in this context of deep-rooted hatred, there is a need for empathy, for gestures and words of love that, even if they do not change the course of events, bring comfort and consolation.”
Cardinal Pizzaballa declared the Church’s determination to continue to plea for the cessation of hostilities. He advocated investment in education and development to give future generations hope, despite the violence.
On Monday, Unicef warned that “there is no safe place for children in Gaza”. The agency said “this shameful violence against children must end now”, deploring attacks on a UN-run school used to shelter displaced families in Nuseirat refugee camp and on the Al-Aqsa Hospital on Monday. At least 23 people were killed in the attacks, including 15 children.
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) did not comment on the attack but has accused Hamas of concealing its operations in school buildings.
The airstrike on the hospital killed at least four people who were burned alive in tents where they were sleeping, while 40 others suffered severe burns, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.
In separate incidents in northern Gaza, a drone strike reported killed five children while they played on a street corner and IDF artillery fire killed at least 10 people at a food distribution centre at Jabalia refugee camp, as Israeli forces continued a ground offensive.
The UN reported widespread starvation in the region, after no food entered northern Gaza for nearly two weeks, while IDF operations have forced the closure of water wells, bakeries and medical points and the suspension of other humanitarian services,
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has reported more than 42,000 deaths in the war, more than half of them of women and children.
Several hundred Jewish protesters and peace activists gathered outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday in protest at US funding for Israel’s attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, some locking themselves to the gates of the building, in an demonstration organised by Jewish Voice for Peace. Protesters laid out a banner reading “Gaza Bombed, Wall Street Booms”.
Marking the anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack last week, Pope Francis and synod delegates in Rome sent $67,000 to the Holy Family Parish in Gaza City.
In its latest “Impact Report”, Friends of the Holy Land reports providing £144,000 of relief to Gaza, assisting communities sheltering at the Holy Family Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of St Porphyius as well as the Al-Ahli Hospital, run by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem.
In the West Bank, the charity has supported the Nazareth scouts and young people in Ramallah with education and training, and funded water projects for families in Bethlehem.