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Dive deeper into the week’s biggest stories from the Middle East and around the world with The National’s foreign desk. Nuances are often missed in day-to-day headlines. We go Beyond the Headlines by bringing together the voices of experts and those living the news to provide a clearer picture of the region’s shifting political and social landscape.
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In his last public address on Easter Sunday, Pope Francis called for an end to the violence in Gaza, calling the humanitarian situation there "dramatic and deplorable”.
His message came only a day before his death. People all over the world mourned the death of the beloved Pontiff, but perhaps no place more than in Gaza, where Palestinian Christians fear they have lost a protector of their community.
Already a dwindling minority, Christians in the strip have also been killed, injured and displaced in the war. Only about half of the 1000 or so Christians remain, with many forced to flee.
Members of the community say they are now concerned that Gaza’s Christians are at risk of disappearing.
The same fear is echoed in the West Bank and Jerusalem where followers of the faith have faced increasingly aggressive attacks and restrictions, including this past Easter. Members of the community have reported a rise in settler attacks against clergy and say Israeli policies are taking a toll on the rapidly shrinking Christian minority of Palestinians.
Host Nada AlTaher speaks to Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian pastor and founder of Dar Al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, and to Palestinian political analyst, Khalil Sayegh, himself a Christian from Gaza.