In Bethlehem, the home of Jesus’ birth, a season of grieving for Palestinian Christians

For Palestinian Christians, the current war marks a catastrophe embedded within a catastrophe: the potential eradication of what was already a minuscule Christian presence in Gaza. Numbering fewer than 1,000 out of a population of more than 2 million, the community’s wartime losses are disproportionately felt.

Many Bethlehem-area Christians have relatives in Gaza, and are terrified for their safety.

An outbuilding of Gaza City’s oldest working church, St. Porphyrius, was hit by Israeli bombardment in October, killing at least 16 of the hundreds of people sheltering there, according to Palestinian officials. Former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, a Palestinian American, posted anguished social-media accounts about several Christian relatives killed or maimed in the strike.

“Our family is hurting badly,” the Michigan Republican-turned-independent wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “May God watch over all Christians in Gaza — and all Israelis and Palestinians who are suffering, whatever their religion or creed.”

Last weekend, two Christian women sheltering at a Roman Catholic church compound in Gaza City were killed by Israeli sniper fire, the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem said. Relatives identified them as a mother and daughter — Naheda Anton, 71, and her daughter, Samr Anton, 58 — and said that after the older woman was hit, her daughter tried to pull her to safety, and was shot as well.

Jawdat Hanna Mikhail, the grandson of one slain woman and the nephew of the other, said several other family members inside the Holy Family compound tried to reach the pair, and were shot and wounded themselves.