09/09/2025
Within the walls of what is considered the third-oldest church in Christianity, clergy and nuns at the Church of Saint Porphyrios in Gaza City have vowed to remain at the aid of displaced civilians as the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces breaches 62,000.
The Greek Orthodox and Latin Patriarchates of Jerusalem published a joint statement in response to the Israeli government’s announcement that it will seize control of Gaza City. The statement directly responds to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s social media post stating “the gates of hell will open” if terms of surrender are not met.
The statement by the patriarchates, dated Aug. 26, 2025, was released days before the Israeli military began mounting an offensive on the outskirts of famine-stricken Gaza City, home to an estimated 2 million Palestinians. Over the past days, the conflict has escalated into a full-scale assault on the city.
Church officials asserted that these threats are “a reality that is already in the process of being implemented,” as continued reports of heavy bombardment constitute “more destruction and death in a situation that was already dramatic before this operation.”
The Church of St. Porphyrios lies just southeast of Palestine Square, in a zone indicated to evacuate by the IDF’s digital map. While Gaza’s only Catholic church, Holy Family, is not included in current evacuation advisories, the joint statement makes clear that longwithstanding Orthodox and Catholic communities remain in the Israeli military’s line of fire.
Holy Family Church and St. Porphyrios, as well as the nearby St. Phillip’s the Evangelist Chapel, make up a thin network of shelters for the injured and sick in Gaza City as the civilian death toll continues to rise, with no foreseeable end to the conflict.
“The clergy and nuns have decided to remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds,” the officials shared, explaining that St. Porphyrios and Holy Family shelter hundreds of civilians. Among them are elderly people, women, children, and people with disabilities, many emaciated by hunger as aid trickles in at a restricted rate.
“Leaving Gaza City and trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence,” the joint letter stated.
The joint statement began with an epigram from Proverbs: “In the path of righteousness there is life, in walking its path there is no death.”
The church’s resolve comes at a time when the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem’s finances have been frozen by the Israeli government. The Knesset, Israel’s parliamentary building, is built on land owned historically by the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, a lay advocacy group, condemned Israel’s freeze of the banking assets of Jerusalem’s patriarchate. The Archons allege Israel has made past attempts to demand “tens of millions of shekels” in taxes from the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, indicating only buildings used for “prayer, for the teaching of religion or for needs arising from it” can be designated as church buildings—not those designated as buildings used for “guest housing.”
Some are concerned that the foreclosure of properties belonging to the Armenian Patriarchate–imposed due to a similar debt–could signal the erosion of the rights of Christians in the Holy Land.
“This is not just a legal or financial issue but a matter of great concern for the future of the Christian presence in Jerusalem,” said Bedross Der Mattossian, a professor of Middle East history at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, in the Armenian publication Massis Post.
Claims of St. Porphyrios being razed circulated in 2023. A week after the claim was debunked, the church was bombed, causing deaths and toppling one of the church’s walls. In July 0f 2024, the church was struck again, causing injuries and the collapse of two more walls.
Church leaders, such as His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem and All Palestine, warn that continued aggression threatens to eliminate the presence of Orthodox faithful in one of the oldest surviving Christian communities.
Protecting Holy Land Christians, a campaign convened by His Beatitude Theophilos III along with the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, has aimed to halt the decline of Christian communities in Jerusalem. The campaign put out a statement earlier this year following an Israeli settler attack on the Palestinian Christian communities of Taybeh.
“The aggression persists—and so must our united vigilance and prayer for peace rooted in justice,” the campaign stated.
The Latin Patriarchate has also spoken to the deteriorating condition of Gazans.
“Christ is not absent from Gaza. He is there — crucified in the wounded, buried under rubble and yet present in every act of mercy, every candle in the darkness, every hand extended to the suffering,” said the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
Photo courtesy of Saint Porphyrios Orthodox Church
