Palestinian Christians despair as Gaza homeland destroyed by Israel’s war
Al Jazeera
As Trump prepares to return as president of Israel’s most powerful ally, Khalil Sayegh recalls his childhood in Gaza’s Christian community which has been ravaged in a year of Israeli bombardments.
When Khalil Sayegh thinks back to his childhood in the Gaza Strip, the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius looms large in his memory.
Sayegh, now 29, remembers the weddings, the Sunday School classes, the music lessons and the visits to the tiny graveyard.
These days, Sayegh lives in Washington, DC, where former President Donald Trump will retake power in January after beating Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris in the United States presidential election this week.
Trump’s political comeback has added a new layer of uncertainty for Palestinians – not just those inside Gaza, which Israel has subjected to near-relentless bombardment and ground assaults for the past 13 months – but also those who, like Sayegh, have family there and are watching helplessly from afar.
They have been deeply angered by the current Democratic Party administration’s failure to hold Israel to account for a war which has resulted in the deaths of more than 43,391 Palestinians – and thousands more who are missing and presumed dead under the rubble. More than 100,000 people have been injured and nearly all the enclave’s population of 2.3 million are displaced.
