{"id":341528,"date":"2012-11-21T05:30:55","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T04:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/crisis-in-gaza\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:08:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:08:02","slug":"crisis-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/crisis-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Crisis in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stuck for days under the shelling of the Catholic area of the Gaza Strip, three focolarini<\/a> were liberated<\/strong> only as a result of intervention by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the French, Korean and Italian consulates. They managed to get way under escort by a United Nations<\/a> convoy. This is an interview with two of them who are experiencing at first hand the start of the new crisis.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/h4>\n

\u2018It\u2019s not possible to understand much of what\u2019s happening, nor what people want to achieve. Certainly things are really bad, and the impression is that we\u2019re on the edge of an abyss,\u2019 I was told in a phone call with two focolarine in Jerusalem who had been caught by surprise in the Israeli bombardment while visiting Focolare<\/a> friends in the Gaza strip.<\/p>\n

\u2018We left on the Wednesday, Corres from Korea, G\u00e9rard from France and I, to visit our community,\u2019 says 35 year-old nurse Francesca, living for more than ten years in Jerusalem<\/a>. \u2018We wanted to go there at other times in the last few months, but various circumstances meant the trip was put off. As soon as we arrived, after hearing the deafening explosion, we were told of the death of Hamas\u2019s military leader. From that moment on, except for very brief moments, it was effectively impossible to leave the tiny Christian quarter where we were staying.\u2019<\/p>\n

Corres took up the story, \u2018We had brought aid collected by the Movement\u2019s friends for our friends in Gaza: clothing, educational material, games for the children, food. We distributed these few things among our Christian friends, in a deeply serene atmosphere. We are witnesses of the generosity of these people, who often when about to receive gifts pointed out other families more in need than they. Despite hearing the bombardment, we can say we were all quite calm. We prayed together, met small groups who wanted news of our community in Israel, Palestine and the world. We played with the children and took tea with young people and adults.\u2019<\/p>\n

Francesca spoke again, \u2018We stayed on the ground floor of the houses, without any shelter, without siren warnings: because shelters and sirens don\u2019t exist in Gaza. People live in constant danger. We were struck by the faith of these people, their endless hope, so strong that it was they who encouraged us. They showed no fear and kept on saying to us: \u201cWe are in God\u2019s hands.\u201d Certainly we could hear the explosions (it was impossible not to!), but we carried on living the normality and simplicity of a life where we are brothers and sisters of one another. We prepared meals for parties, despite everything. One of our friends went as far as the harbour to buy fresh fish for us and one morning they cooked pizza in the oven for our breakfast.’ The most difficult moment was at night when, with each explosion, the windows and the ground shook, as the planes flew overhead of the people in Gaza City.<\/p>\n

Of course all three focolarini had registered their presence with the UN who were preparing an expedition to withdraw foreigners from the Gaza Strip. For two days they went to the exit point, but each time there was a problem that stopped them leaving, until a UN convoy was able to escort people away.<\/p>\n

Francesca concluded by saying, \u2018I brought away with me a picture of those days: we had taken colouring books and paints with us. A boy painted a house under a tree. But at the centre of the house there was a missile. These children have grown up without peace, without calm.\u2019<\/p>\n

By Michele Zanzucchi<\/em> (Source<\/em>: Citt\u00e0 Nuova online<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Citt\u00e0 Nuova magazine interview with two focolarine experiencing at first hand the start of a new crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}