Franciscan friar describes widespread suffering in Gaza, departure of Christians from Bethlehem
February 21, 2026
A Franciscan friar who oversees 18 schools in the Holy Land described continued widespread suffering in Gaza, four months after the signing of the Gaza peace plan.
In an interview with Radio Cusano Campus, Father Ibrahim Faltas, OFM, also discussed the suffering of Christians in the West Bank.
“Since the truce, about 700 people have been killed, most of them children, the elderly and women,” said Father Faltas. “The situation is also dire in the West Bank.”
“Movement is limited, people are desperate,” he continued. “Christians are fleeing, they are leaving the Holy Land, over 200 families have left Bethlehem and are never returning. Many others are ready to leave because they think there is no future for their children. Now they are also afraid of the war between America and Iran.”
Commenting on the situation in Gaza, Father Faltas said:
We are talking about 350,000 dead and wounded, with over 10,000 Palestinians still under the rubble. Since the truce has been in place, the number of deaths has decreased somewhat: from 300 to 400 a day we have gone to 700 in four months. But medicines and humanitarian aid do not enter.
Some say that the dead are over 100,000, but even if they were to be 75,000 as official estimates say, there are 200,000 wounded and 20,000 children who need to leave Gaza, and we cannot get them out. Italy was the first nation to welcome these children.
Father Faltas, referring to the Gaza Board of Peace, added:
I hope that the Board of Peace will think of the good of two and a half million people who are living an inhumane life in Gaza, in the cold and rain, sleeping in the mud. Let us hope that the Lord will place in the hearts of these 50 countries the mercy to do good for the Palestinian people.
Gaza has become an open-air cemetery. There are many Israelis who are against what happened and suffer from it, not everyone accepts this because they know that it is children who pay the consequences of this cursed war.
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Further information:
- A GAZA SITUAZIONE IMMUTATA IN FRANCIA MACRON ATTACCA LA MELONI (Radio Cusano Campus, 2/20/26)
- Padre Faltas: “A Gaza non entrano medicine e aiuti umanitari, 20mila bambini hanno bisogno di cure” (Secolo Trentino, 2/21/26)
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