Gaza’s only Catholic school reopens after 3-year closure

A Catholic school in the war-torn Gaza Strip reopened its doors this week after being closed for nearly three years.

Holy Family School, attached to Gaza’s only Catholic church, Holy Family Parish, welcomed approximately 1,000 students back to school on Sept. 15, according to the Catholic aid group Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Holy Family’s parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, told a visiting delegation from ACN that he hopes the reopening of the school “will bring some sense of normality” to the students and their families, “even though nothing is normal in Gaza.”

“There is almost nowhere in Gaza that has not been destroyed, destruction is all around,” Romanelli said, “but we have worked hard to make the school a clean environment, where the children — who have been through so much — can feel safe.”

The ACN delegation was in Gaza to assess local needs during the ongoing war with Israel, which began Oct. 7, 2023, and which has taken nearly 74,000 lives in the Gaza Strip, according to the aid group.

Students at Holy Family Catholic school in Gaza. | Credit: Aid to the Church in Need

The majority of the 1,000 students at the school are Muslim, according to…