Franciscan friar describes ‘terrifying night’ in Jerusalem

March 07, 2026

A friar of the Franciscans’ Holy Land province described the night of March 5-6 in Jerusalem as a “terrifying night.”

Father Ibrahim Faltas, OFM, director of schools of the Custody of the Holy Land, told the Italian news agency ANSA that “the sirens sounded for a long time, and the sky of the Holy Land was crossed by hundreds of missiles. Most were headed for Tel Aviv. Deafening noises can be heard, and we know that they are sounds of death.”

“On the border with the Lebanon, clashes and the exchange of missiles intensify,” he continued, as he lamented the “terrible scenario of death, destruction” from the extension of the Iran war there.

Father Faltas commented:

We must have the courage and strength to stop the fire and to return to being human to respect life. This resurgence of violence increases the desperation of the people. People are tired and no longer have the strength to bear so much pain.

I would ask those who organize wars to walk among the rubble, to look into the eyes of frightened children, to experience what it means to be hungry and cold. After doing so, they should ask themselves where their humanity has gone, their respect for the lives of others and their own lives.

He added:

Gaza is forgotten. Aid does not enter; those in urgent need of medical care cannot leave.

The Middle East cannot become a huge battlefield. The Holy Land is engulfed in violence. This blessed land must send out a message of true and just peace to the world. This tormented land must not be a reminder and representation of the blind violence of a defeated humanity, but a model of peaceful coexistence between peoples, a concrete sign of a united humanity that has the courage to work for a better world.

 

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Further information:

• P. Faltas da Gerusalemme, 'una notte terribile, gente stanca di tanto dolore' (ANSA, 3/6/26)