During a visit to Italy, Franciscan friar Ibrahim Faltas illustrates the terrible situation the people of the Holy Land region are living in, and warns that if things continue as they are, “there will truly be no Christians left.”
By Kielce Gussie
“The situation in Gaza is terrible”, Fr. Ibrahim Faltas, a Franciscan friar of the Custody of the Holy Land, said during a visit to Italy during which he participated in several events, including a meeting with the Mediterranean Youth Council.
Speaking to Toscana Oggi—a weekly Italian publication—Fr. Faltas reflected on the current situation in Gaza.
Deprived of everything
“People continue to die – from hunger, thirst, and the heat,” he said, calling the situation inhumane. And poignantly, the Franciscan priest asked two questions: “Where is the international community? Where are human rights?”
On 1 September, Fr. Faltas explained that schools were reopened throughout the Holy Land, in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. However, in Gaza, children have been out of school for two years.
“They are deprived of everything — education, healthcare. There are no doctors, no medicine”, he said, adding that even playing is impossible for these children. They “have known nothing but war, fleeing, hiding, destruction, and rubble.”
Fr. Faltas during a visit to Rome in 2024
However, Fr. Faltas stressed, the humanitarian crisis is not limited to Gaza: “Bethlehem has become an open-air prison.” He pointed out that with the checkpoints closed, people who used to work in Israel pre-war with daily work permits are now unable to do so. They cannot work or leave. People whose livelihoods depended on tourism have not worked in two years.
The Christian community in Bethlehem is also suffering as some 185 families have left, that’s more than 700 people, Fr. Faltas explained. He warned that “if things continue like this, there will truly be no Christians left.”
A strong gesture of hope
In the midst of the horrors of war, Fr. Faltas also recounted an act of hope and solidarity. In June, the bishops from Tuscany made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which the Franciscan priest described as “courageous” and an important, impactful gesture for the Christians living in the region. He shared that the bishops’ visit “gave hope to the people there: “Everyone appreciated the visit – people still remember it.”
