Separated from Gaza’s Catholic community

When Father Gabriel Romanelli travelled to the West Bank to get some urgently-needed medicine for a nun living with his community in Gaza, it never crossed his mind he'd be separated from his flock for over six months. Father Romanelli, parish priest of the Holy Family Church in the north of the strip, had to watch from a distance as the horrors of the 7 October Hamas attack unfolded, before Israel's bombardment of Gaza led to the humanitarian crisis and suffering we now see in this torn land. On this special episode of 'Middle East Analysis', we welcome to our podcast the shepherd of Gaza's tiny Catholic community - one that numbered only 135 people before the war. Father Romanelli spent a week in the UK, in London and Glasgow, meeting with Christian leaders and politicians to highlight the plight of the near 500 people still sheltering in the compound of the Holy Family Church. Regular studio guest Dr Harry Hagopian, an International lawyer and analyst who has long worked for peace between Israel and Palestine joins Fr Romanelli in conversation for this special podcast. Harry was a Track II negotiator during the time of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s and a former Assistant General Secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches.