Israel turns down widow's request

Gaza: A Gaza Christian family is trying to travel to the West Bank to meet Pope Benedict XVI whose visit to the Palestinian territories does not include the Strip

The Abrash family sent their applications and documents to the Israeli side, hoping that they can go and pray with Pope Benedict XVI, but Israelis are not allowing them to go to the West Bank.

Christine Abrash is a 42-year-old widow of a Palestinian who was killed during the recent war on Gaza. She is bringing up her four daughters all by herself despite the tough conditions prevailing in the area because of the Israeli siege.

"We are a part of the Gaza society, sharing happiness, sadness and pain," Christine said.

"What happened to my husband happened to many innocent Palestinians. We believe he is in paradise now," she added.

The Israeli war on Gaza resulted in the death of at least 1,300 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and injuries to around 5,500.

"The strange thing is the pope will not visit us, while Christians from all around the world can easily go to the West Bank and pray with him," Christine said.

Reham, 17, the elder daughter of Christine said: "We wish peace for the entire world, but we don't have it at all here. We are terrified all the time. For the past three years, we are living in violence and pain."

She added: "I live like any ordinary girl in Gaza. I have good friends. I and my sisters have lot of activities here, and we love Gaza. It's our country no matter what happened here we will remain and be a part of the Gazan society."

"The church tries to provide us some peace through gathering us and providing some activities," she added.

During Christmas, Israelis approved only 257 out of 5,000 applications. There are around 65,000 Christians in the Palestinian territories and 3,500 of them are living in Gaza Strip. Most of them are orthodox and almost all of them lives in Gaza city.

"We wanted to meet the pope since we heard that he will visit the Palestinian territories," said the grandmother, Evon Abrash 72.