— Holy Land Councillor News
Gaza’s Only Catholic School Reopens After Three-Year Closure
September 28, 2026
After nearly three years of silence, the school bells in Gaza rang again for over a thousand children.
Dear Members,
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem shares the good news that Holy Family School, attached to the only Catholic parish in Gaza, has reopened its doors for the 2026 to 2027 academic year. After nearly three years of war, more than a thousand children returned to classrooms this month. We are grateful to the Patriarchate for sharing these photos and account, and invite you to read the full report with images below.
Holy Family School welcomed 1,005 students from kindergarten through Grade 12, served by 77 teachers. Before the war, Christian children in Gaza were spread across five schools, three of them Catholic. Now, for the first time, all of the territory’s Christian students, about 130 of them, study together in one school. George Akroush of the Latin Patriarchate’s Project Development Office told Aid to the Church in Need that this shared classroom “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.”
The reopening was made possible by the generosity of donors and partners who helped restore the school buildings. During the hardest years of the war, the parish sheltered more than 450 displaced people on its premises, and the compound was struck by tank fire in 2025, injuring Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest. As families returned home this spring, the classrooms were made available again. Fr. Romanelli and his team also built new psychosocial support into the school program, because, as he put it, “everyone in Gaza is carrying so much trauma.”
For me the school is a light in the darkness, it means a lot to people. When they see the 1,000 students coming in their uniforms to the school it shows them that there is a future.
For Auxiliary Bishop William Shomali, patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem and Palestine, the reopening is a small but significant step toward normalcy. “Reopening the school is itself a form of care,” he said. He reminded those following the news in Gaza that “every child who enters this school is a reminder that hope is stronger than fear and that the Church remains dedicated to building a future of dignity, opportunity, and peace.” Guided by His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Patriarchate continues its work of education, shelter, and service for the community of Gaza.
