ERBIL, Iraq

A Palestinian priest said that it will be a “very sad” Christmas this year, as 3% of the Christian community in the Gaza Strip has been killed in the ongoing Israeli attacks on the besieged Palestinian enclave since Oct. 7.

In an interview with the website Democracy Now, Mitri Raheb, the president of Dar al-Kalima University, said: “I don’t think in my entire life I experienced so much sadness, but also so much anger about what’s happening in Gaza.”

“I fear that this is the end of the Christian presence in Gaza. And, you know, the Christian presence in Gaza is a 2,000-years-old presence,” he added.

Raheb noted that Christmas festivities have been canceled in Bethlehem.

“You don't have Christmas lights. you don't have (a) Christmas tree in Bethlehem. There are no tourists coming because of the war,” he said.

“Here in the West Bank, we are experiencing apartheid colonization by Jewish settlers,” Raheb added.

“I find it really a shame that in this season, where every church hears these words, ‘peace on Earth,’ that the United States is vetoing even a cease-fire. It’s a shame,” he said.

He noted that more than 8,000 children have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, killing at least 20,057 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 53,320 others, according to health authorities in the besieged enclave.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory's housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.

Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack, while more than 130 hostages remain in captivity.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara