This is a list of most important churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the State of Palestine:
This is a list of most important churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the State of Palestine:
The Gaza Strip, or simply Gaza, is a polity and the smaller of the two Palestinian territories. On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north.
Hamas, an acronym of its official name, Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist political and military movement governing parts of the occupied Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Christians are a religious community of the Palestinian people consisting of those who identify as Christians, including those who are cultural Christians in addition to those who actively adhere to Christianity. They are a religious minority within the State of Palestine and within Israel, as well as within the Palestinian diaspora. Applying the broader definition, which groups together individuals with full or partial Palestinian Christian ancestry, the term was applied to an estimated 500,000 people globally in the year 2000. As most Palestinians are Arabs, the overwhelming majority of Palestinian Christians also identify as Arab Christians.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the Nakba, the 1948 Palestine War, and subsequent conflicts, as well as their descendants, including legally adopted children. As of 2019, more than 5.6 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA as refugees.
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict, is an ongoing military and political conflict about self-determination within the territory of the former British Mandate of Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, borders, security, water rights, Palestinian freedom of movement, and the Palestinian right of return.
Gaza, also called Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip. Before the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, it was the most populous city in the State of Palestine, with 590,481 in 2017.
The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against the Israeli occupation, characterized by a period of heightened violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel between 2000 and 2005. The general triggers for the unrest are speculated to have been centered on the failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit, which was expected to reach a final agreement on the Israeli–Palestinian peace process in July 2000. An uptick in violent incidents started in September 2000, after Israeli politician Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa compound, which is situated atop the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem; the visit itself was peaceful, but, as anticipated, sparked protests and riots that Israeli police put down with rubber bullets, live ammunition, and tear gas. Within the first few days of the uprising, the IDF had fired one million rounds of ammunition.
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has referred to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as "the Occupied Palestinian Territory", and this term was used as the legal definition by the ICJ in its advisory opinion of July 2004. The term occupied Palestinian territory was used by the United Nations and other international organizations between October 1999 and December 2012 to refer to areas controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, but from 2012, when Palestine was admitted as one of its non-member observer states, the United Nations started using exclusively the name State of Palestine. The European Union (EU) also uses the term "occupied Palestinian territory". The government of Israel and its supporters use the label "disputed territories" instead.
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a state in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Founded on 15 November 1988 and officially governed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), it claims the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as its territory, all of which have been Israeli-occupied territories since the 1967 Six-Day War. The West Bank contains 165 Palestinian enclaves that are under partial Palestinian rule, but the remainder, including 200 Israeli settlements, is under full Israeli control. The Gaza Strip was governed by Egypt but conquered by Israel in 1967. Israel governed the region until it withdrew in 2005. The United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and various human-rights organizations still consider Gaza to be held under Israeli military occupation, due to what they regard as Israel's effective military control over the territory; Israel disputes this. Hamas seized power after winning the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. This has since been ensued by a blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt.
Rafah is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip; it is the capital of the Rafah Governorate, located 30 kilometers (19 mi) south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. As a result of massive bombardment and ground assaults in Gaza City and Khan Yunis by Israel during the Israel–Hamas war, about 1.4 million people are believed to be sheltering in Rafah as of February 2024.
The Gaza–Israel conflict is a localized part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict beginning in 1948, when 200,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes, settling in the Gaza Strip as refugees. Since then, Israel has fought 15 wars against the Gaza Strip. The number of Gazans killed in the most recent 2023 war — 27,000 — is higher than the death toll of all other wars of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
A blockade has been imposed on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Gaza Strip following Hamas's takeover in 2007, led by Israel and supported by Egypt. The blockade's current stated aim is to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, although previously stated motivations have included exerting economic pressure on Hamas. Human rights groups have described the blockade as illegal and a form of collective punishment as it restricts the flow of essential goods, contributes to economic hardship, and limits the freedom of movement for Gaza's residents. The blockade and its effects have led to the territory being described as an "open-air prison".
The Church of Saint Porphyrius is a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City, State of Palestine. It belongs to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and is the oldest active church in the city and is said to be the third oldest church in the world. Located in the Zaytun Quarter of the Old City of Gaza, it is named after the 5th-century bishop of Gaza, Saint Porphyrius, whose tomb is situated in the northeastern corner of the church.
The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge, and Battle of the Withered Grain, was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that has been governed by Hamas since 2007. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Hamas-affiliated Palestinian militants, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initiated Operation Brother's Keeper, in which some 350 Palestinians, including nearly all of the active Hamas militants in the West Bank, were arrested. Hamas subsequently fired a greater number of rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip, triggering a seven-week-long conflict between the two sides. It was one of the deadliest outbreaks of open conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in decades. The combination of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes resulted in over two thousand deaths, the vast majority of which were Gazan Palestinians. This includes a total of six Israeli civilians who were killed as a result of the conflict.
Pierbattista Pizzaballa is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem since 6 November 2020. A Franciscan friar, he served as Custos of the Holy Land from 2004 to 2016, Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate from 2016 to 2020, and was made a cardinal by Pope Francis on 30 September 2023.
The COVID-19 pandemic in the State of Palestine is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The State of Palestine first identified its cases in the Bethlehem area on 5 March 2020, when a group of Greek tourists who visited a hotel in late February tested positive for the disease. The Hebron district is considered an epicenter of the outbreak. The first two cases in Gaza City, Gaza were diagnosed on 21 March. On 24 August 2020, confirmed cases outside of quarantine centers were recorded.
Events in the year 2010 in Cyprus.
Armenian-Palestinian relations refers to relations between Armenia and the State of Palestine. Armenia supports Palestinian statehood. Armenia is an observer state of the Arab League in which Palestine is a full member. The former President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has stated that Armenia supported the Palestinian people's self determination in an interview with Al Mayadeen. President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas has also stated that he supported the expanding of Armenia and called Armenians a "great ally of Palestine".
