Father Gabriel Romanelli told a visiting delegation he hopes the reopening of the parish school \u201cwill bring some sense of normality\u201d to the students and their families.<\/p>\n
![\"Some](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/school-gaza-8.jpg\")
Some children and teenagers from Gaza participate in a lesson on the veranda of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word house, inside the compound of the Holy Family parish in Gaza. \u201cEngaging in studies helps to avoid thinking and talking only about the war, to not focus solely on the conflict. It is a small seed of hope,\u201d Father Gabriel Romanelli explained to EWTN News. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Gabriel Romanelli<\/p>\n
A Catholic school in the war-torn Gaza Strip reopened its doors this week after being closed for nearly three years.<\/p>\n
Holy Family School, attached to Gaza\u2019s only Catholic church, Holy Family Parish, welcomed approximately 1,000 students back to school on Sept. 15, according to<\/a> the Catholic aid group Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).<\/p>\n Holy Family\u2019s parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, told a visiting delegation from ACN that he hopes the reopening of the school \u201cwill bring some sense of normality\u201d to the students and their families, \u201ceven though nothing is normal in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is almost nowhere in Gaza that has not been destroyed, destruction is all around,\u201d Romanelli said, \u201cbut we have worked hard to make the school a clean environment, where the children \u2014 who have been through so much \u2014 can feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n The ACN delegation was in Gaza to assess local needs during the ongoing war with Israel, which began Oct. 7, 2023, and which has taken nearly 74,000 lives in the Gaza Strip, according to the aid group.<\/p>\n The majority of the 1,000 students at the school are Muslim, according to George Akroush, director of the project development office of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Christian students make up about 13% of the student population.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first time, all Christian students in Gaza will be studying together in one Christian school,\u201d Akroush told ACN. \u201cThis creates a strong sense of community and shows that the Church remains close to them, accompanying them in the midst of all they are going through.\u201d<\/p>\n Previously, five Christian schools served Gaza: three Catholic, one evangelical Protestant, and one Orthodox.<\/p>\n Romanelli said he hopes the reopened school will be \u201clike a light in the darkness for the local community that has experienced so much suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone in Gaza is carrying so much trauma,\u201d he said, telling ACN the school is incorporating a psychosocial support program \u201cthat will be an important part of what we do with the children\u201d as well as the teachers, many of whom \u201care so traumatized, and it is almost as if they are not the same people who we knew before the start of the war.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he hopes that when Gazans, who have begun returning to the devastated region, see the \u201cstudents coming in their uniforms to the school, it shows them that there is a future,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The priest said he takes families to the beach on Sundays after Mass, \u201ceven though the water in the beach is filled with rubble \u2014 everywhere in Gaza is filled with rubble,\u201d because \u201cwe want to have some time of recreation for the families.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe needs in Gaza are enormous,\u201d he continued, saying the students have asked him to keep the school open for after-school activities because \u201cwe have nothing to do and nowhere to go.\u201d<\/p>\n If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating<\/a> to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> for more information on donating to CWR. Click here<\/a> to sign up for our newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Father Gabriel Romanelli told a visiting delegation he hopes the reopening of the parish school \u201cwill bring some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-618517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0915HolyLand_16375659784684003636_2_egp0by.jpg\")
Students at Holy Family Catholic school in Gaza. | Credit: Aid to the Church in Need<\/p>\n