Christians in the West Bank and Palestinian territories where Jesus lived, preached the Gospel and died will be observing a subdued Easter due to the ongoing conflict and displacement this year.  

Joseph Hazboun is the regional director of the pontifical humanitarian aid organization the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) and is based in Jerusalem. He said these are emotionally exhausting times for Christians as they follow the news of bloodshed and famine emerging daily from Gaza.

“All these hardships that many continue to witness and live make us participants joining in the suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ during Holy Week, especially Good Friday,” he told The Catholic Register.

Hazboun’s words are underlined by swiftly unfolding events.

An early Sunday morning air strike April 13 destroyed the outpatient and laboratory wards in the Anglican Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. The debris from the airstrike reached the neighbouring St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church which was preparing for the Palm Sunday celebration along with the local community residing in the church compound.

Sadly, this has taken its toll on Holy Week observances and Easter celebrations, Hazboun said. Parishioners from past generations remember walking triumphantly down the mount of olives on Palm Sunday, but nowadays they and their children are not allowed to visit the city. 

“Unfortunately, the scout parades will be silent, candlelight parades instead of the joyful bands playing through the streets of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and Holy Saturday. Even the schools had to cancel their graduation parties out of respect for the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian community.”

Palm Sunday and Easter would have been completely different if peace had returned to Gaza.

“Activities all over the West Bank and East Jerusalem, such as egg hunting and parties for children, scout training events and get togethers, parades in the  streets of Jerusalem,” Hazboun said, recalling a time before the war broke out. “Joyful processions on Palm Sunday would be the highlight of the celebration with Christians from all over the Holy Land as well as international pilgrims participating.”

This is in stark contrast to what happens today.

“Christians are suffocating and are trapped in their own governorates (provinces) and towns unable to travel freely without harassment because they need special permits to travel,” he said.

As the leader of an aid organization, Hazboun is particularly frustrated by the stifling of humanitarian work because of expanded military activity and the blockade imposed by Israel on the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies for over a month.

 “In Gaza, we are unable to do anything as an entire population of two million people including the Christian community is under a vicious starvation campaign,” he said. “So, they definitely need public and international support to lift the tight siege and let international aid and supplies into the Gaza Strip.”

Hazboun’s comments were echoed by Tom Fletcher, the UN’s Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, who stated on the social media platform X that: “We are being deliberately blocked from saving lives in Gaza, and so civilians are dying.”

Syria shares a border with Israel, has deep roots in Christianity and is home to some of world’s first Christians. An Easter tradition that all of Syria’s Christian denominations hold dear is the lighting of a sacred flame at the Church of the Cross in Damascus. The fire is brought each year from the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem.

The scene of St. Paul’s dramatic conversion from persecutor of Christians to one of its most ardent missionaries, Syria once had a majority Christian population (80 per cent before the dawn of the Islamic era in the seventh century). Steadily declining over the centuries due to war and persecution it saw a rapid reduction from 1.5 million at the beginning of the civil war of 2011 to an estimated 300,000 now.

 After the defeat of dictator Bashar Assad by opposition forces led by a group called HTS (Hayat Tahrir al Sham), once known for its radical Islamist activities, the Christian population is facing the future with mixed feeling — a silver lining of hope around the dark cloud of fear and apprehension that the new regime, despite its promises to distance itself from its extremist roots, will make life untenable for Christians in their ancient homeland.

Easter celebrations and rituals will be allowed proceed as usual, but some fear that this is just a camouflage for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s Islamist credentials, and part of a strategy to win international recognition for his regime, Nagui Demian international programs coordinator for Development and Peace-Caritas Canada told the Register.

While some Christians are hopeful that the end of the war is a new and better chapter for them, the majority are fearful the future won’t be better than the past, he said.