"No one knows where all this is leading, and unfortunately there is no sign that what started yesterday can end soon," - Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of the Catholic Church in Gaza named after the Holy Family, describes the uncertainty laden with bad feelings on October 8. what the local population feels after the mass attack launched by Hamas militiamen against Israel.
Above all, the memory of what happened in the past, in the earlier stages of the conflict, worries people. "Due to situations much less serious than the present," recalls the Argentinian priest, a member of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, "very long wars started here in the past." And now, seeing all this, I constantly think of XII. Pope Pius' appeal before the outbreak of the Second World War: nothing is lost with peace, everything can be lost with war. II. János Pál also repeated these words."
Father Gabriel feels that now we can only "pray and hope that the war will end as soon as possible, so that it will be less difficult to heal the wounds and then work for the justice and peace that so many Israelis and Palestinians long for in their hearts."
The attack on Israeli territory began at dawn on October 7, Saturday. Thousands of rockets launched from Gaza toward Israeli territory fell on settlements near the Gaza Strip, as well as on Tel Aviv and Ashkelon.
Attacks by Hamas militiamen reached the Israeli settlements closest to the zone, and the armed terrorists took prisoners. Marine units and motorized paragliders were deployed during the raids. The Palestinian operation is referred to as Flood, and the Israeli operation as Iron Swords.
On Sunday morning, October 8, Pope Francis expressed his concern and pain about what happened in the Holy Land after the Lord's Prayer: "I follow with concern and sadness what is happening in Israel, where the violence broke out even more cruelly, claiming hundreds of dead and wounded. I express my closeness to the families of the victims, I pray for them and for all those who are going through hours of terror and anxiety. Please stop the attacks and the weapons and understand that terrorism and war do not lead to any solution, only to the death and suffering of so many innocent people. The war is a defeat! All wars are defeats! Let us pray for peace in Israel and Palestine!”
