Palestinian Insider Explains How Christians, Others Killed In Israel-Hamas War
Episode Stats
Words per minute
183.68593
Harmful content
Misogyny
2
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Toxicity
4
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Hate speech
41
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Summary
Khalil Sayir is a member of a family that lives in the Holy Land. His sister, brother-in-law, and other family members have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. In this episode, Khalil shares the tragic story of his family's loss.
Transcript
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They're being manipulated a lot of times by media.
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Media did tend to portray a different view where we as Christian Palestinians don't exist.
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I can tell you, Jean, you guys are the only and the first Western media to interview me on this topic.
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The mainstream media is not concerned about what happened to us,
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or somehow they don't want this type of story to go out, and I wonder why.
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At LifeSite, we've been trying to give you the reality of what's going on in the Holy Land.
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There's a lot of disparate voices out there saying this is happening, that's happening, this is not happening.
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You've seen exclusive interviews with the Auxiliary Bishop of Jerusalem.
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Two ladies were shot dead while they were moving within the compound of the church.
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In fact, one old lady of 70 years wanted to go to the restroom.
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But I wanted to give you something of a scene of what's happening in family life.
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With us today on the Donald Henry Weston Show is Khalil Sayir.
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He's actually a member of a family that is in Gaza.
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His other sister was there and unfortunately was killed.
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And his other family members have been killed there as well.
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So we're going to find out from this Christian, from this Catholic in the Holy Land,
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So let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
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First of all, Khalil, let me say my condolences for the loss of your sister, of your dad as well.
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I want you to explain that to us, if you could, first.
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Let me just start by saying quickly that although my mom is Catholic,
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I happen to be an Orthodox, and my father is an Orthodox,
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so I was born to a family that is, half of it is Catholic, and half of it is Orthodox.
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As a matter of fact, we used to go to both of the parishes in Gaza.
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What has happened to my family started right after this war,
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although it goes back to a really longer history of being impacted by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
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and the terrible things that the Palestinians have suffered underneath the Israeli occupation,
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but in particularly also the Christian community that has suffered since 1948,
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since the establishment of the state of Israel,
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where a lot of Christian villages were completely destroyed.
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Their churches were destroyed, forced out of their homes.
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But in this last episode of violence that started with the horrific October 7th attack
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that claimed the lives of innocent Israeli and Jewish victims,
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which was obviously carried by Hamas and Islamist armed resistance to control Gaza.
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Following that, Israel has responded with tremendous violence.
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But the violence that Israel has chosen to respond with
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that did not discriminate between companions or non-companids.
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It did not discriminate between even Christian or Muslim.
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and they were under direct fire and under indirect fire,
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and I will explain what's the difference between both.
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And the direct fire, like what happened at St. Perfidus Church on October 19th,
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when the St. Perfidus Church, one of the oldest churches in the world,
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was built in the 3rd century, where my family had been worshipping for years,
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The Orthodox Church went in an Israeli airstrike
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that claimed the life of about 8 to 19 Christian members there.
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My friend Ramis lost the three of his kids in this bombing of the church.
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was about 2% of the entire Christian population in Gaza.
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Again, we are a very small population that have been shrinking for years.
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That's the direct killing that the Israeli forces have carried against Christians
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Also at the Catholic Church in Gaza, where my family was sheltering,
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Two women were killed by Israeli snipers on December 19th.
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And when people tried to save them, young Christian Catholics
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that risked their lives, tried to carry the bodies of these women who were shot,
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Seven of those scampy men, seven of those young men were shot in the lakes.
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This is in the same area, by the way, that Israel killed its own Jewish hostages
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carrying white flagels that were also shot at the same matter.
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That was a very clear policy that the Israeli media has reported in.
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And they were critical of when they killed Jewish hostages themselves.
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Two days after this, my father at the church, a few days before Christmas, he gets sick.
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We don't know exactly what's happening to him because all hospitals in Gaza city
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Ambulances are not allowed to treat people, including in the church,
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the Israeli tanks surrounding where my father is.
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And the majority of the Christians, and particularly the Catholics, are at that church.
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And all of a sudden, I hear from the father at the church that my father has passed away
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because he wasn't able to receive medical attention.
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Because after months of trying to get my family out of Gaza, we decided to take the risk and
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to take the really dangerous trip between the north and the south of Gaza.
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We decided to do it when others have done it, when others have walked, and we feel that
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But what's so called the safe road between the north of Gaza and the south of Gaza is a
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It's a similar area to how world-centric kitchen aid workers were killed there by Israeli missiles.
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And they didn't open the checkpoint until noon because they were celebrating Passover or
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Pesach, as the Jewish brothers and sisters call it.
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And it seems like a combination of fear from the tags that was surrounding my 18-year-old
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sister and the shooting that was happening, etc.
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My sister, 18 years old, collapses in this corridor.
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My mom, who's 55, shouts and asks people to help her.
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But no one would stop to help her because if anyone stops and tries to carry someone there,
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he will be shot and killed by the Israeli army that was surrounding that area.
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She calls the ambulance and says, the ambulance says, we cannot get in.
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But only one of my Muslim friends, Mohammed, his name, and I want to mention his name because
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And despite that the Israelis would shoot anyone who would get in that area, he rest his life
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with another two Muslim men and got them under Israeli shooting while shooting at them.
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And when they took me to the hospital, my mom was in a caravan for 48 hours.
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And my sister, 18 years old sister, had already passed out.
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Because the separation and they moved to the south where there is no Christians or churches,
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my sister wasn't even able to get a dignified burial or have a prayer over her body and her soul.
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And she was buried in the south in a property that is owned by one of the Christian communities
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in Gaza, but without even a priest being there or anyone from the south.
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Is this now typical of what's going on to the Christian community in Gaza?
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I don't think there is necessarily an attack on Christians in Gaza, Israelis.
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But I think there is an attack on general all civilians, Muslims and Christians.
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And the Christians happen to be there thus they are being attacked.
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When you destroy all hospitals, Jean, in Gaza, including Christian hospitals, by the way,
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including the first hospital in Gaza, which is an Anglican hospital that was established
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in Gaza, including the Caritas Clinic, which is a Catholic clinic that was run in Gaza,
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one would wonder, who are you trying to target when you destroy all this health infrastructure?
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So that's the indirect killing of everyone, including the Christians.
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There were never any attempts to save the Christians.
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When you targeted the church, and Israel is very precise, it's one of the most precise
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And when you target the church, and when you kill people there, there's a very, very clear
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intention to target everyone who is still there, including the Christians.
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But when we say, like, how long have this been happening?
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Things have been happening also in the West Bank.
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I mean, the famous story of the Christian Catholic, actually, journalist Sharina Ba'okla,
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who was killed about two years ago by an Israeli fire engineer, as she was reporting,
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and other numerous cases of Christians who were killed during this conflict.
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It's the imposition of regime permits that does not allow Christians to go and pray in
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that holy sites, such as Bethlehem, if they're from Gaza, and those who are in the West Bank,
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are not allowed to go to Jerusalem to pray at the church of the Holy Spirit.
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There's all sorts of layers to this conflict and the imposition of this occupation that
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have made the life of the Christians in general, and the Palestinians in particular, very, very
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Most people in the West, we know the holy sites that we hear of from the Bible, but
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we don't know where they are in relation to where the conflict is happening now and what
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Can you lay out some of that for us in terms of the Christian holy sites that we know of
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and explain where they are today and what that means in terms of occupation?
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It's really, really difficult to explain it because Israel have created all sorts of flyers
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and all sorts of segregated areas that are really very confusing to understand.
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Historically, it was that the entire land of what's known as the Holy Land was controlled
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by Israel since 1948, except what's so-called the West Bank, which happened to be historically
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what's called Judea and Samaria, and that includes Jerusalem, that includes the first place
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of Jesus, Bethlehem, and the Gaza Strip, the area which in the Bible, known as the land
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of the Philistines in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, it's mentioned when the
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Ethiopian prince was traveling and then Philippus meets him and he goes, it says that he was
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traveling through Gaza and there that he was baptized.
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And that was sort of a non-story in the Christian tradition.
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In 1967 war, when Israel conquered the West Bank and Gaza, it all became under their control.
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However, after the Oslo agreements in the 90s, it became more that the Palestinians have some
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sort of self-autonomy, which the Palestinian authority control.
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However, they're surrounded by Israeli settlers and surrounded by settlements that they built
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in Palestinian land, including Christian land, like in Bethlehem.
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And they surrounded and they made some sort of model next that it's hard for you to get in and
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For example, if you're in Bethlehem and you're a Christian, you can walk to Jerusalem, like you
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could walk like Israel, it's an hour walk and you can go to the church of Holy Sabbath
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And according to the Israeli occupation, you have to go through a checkpoint and you need
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to have a specific permit that is very hard to get that permit.
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And majority of times their permits are denied.
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But if you're in Gaza, God forbid, as a Christian, it's almost impossible to get to the
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West Bank unless it's on Easter or Christmas and they give you a specific permit.
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But they make sure to separate the families and not to give all the families, which makes
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And it created all sort of separation between families.
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It's very complicated to explain, obviously, but thank you for that.
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Now, you are a Christian, but you're a Palestinian.
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I know we're talking about history and it should be known history, but you know what?
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What is the Palestinian perspective on what happened in the beginning?
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And what did it do to the communities that were there?
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When it comes to history, there is a lot of disagreements between scholars and what happened
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exactly and whether which side was right or wrong, right?
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But what I could tell you from a historical point of view, as Christians will believe also,
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in fact, I will believe that there are such a thing as objective truth.
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And even in history, if you look really into objective truth, you can find it.
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And what I could tell you as an objective truth was that on 1948, on the creation of the state
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of Israel, more than 700,000 Palestinians were pushed out.
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Among those were the majority of the Christian community that lived historically in that area,
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where they were pushed out just like Muslims.
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Now, the Israelis would say, well, they just left by themselves, would say, okay, let's assume
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Why are they wearing a light back by the Israelis?
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They would say, well, they just like, we had to just ban them from returning because we
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And if we're allowed Christians to come back or even Muslims to come back, it's no longer
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And I would respond, regardless of that, that's still an unjust and unfair to people.
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People like my grandparents, who lived from my mother's side, lived in Akko, in the north
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And like from my father's side, who lived in Ashkaban, what's known as Ashkaban, that used
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to be called Mashtub, lost not only their ability to go back to their home, but their
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But not only that, some churches actually were damaged in 48.
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And then other things happened in 67, when Israel occupied what's known as the Golan Heights.
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The Golan Heights used to have flourishing Syrian Christian community, and they did not allow
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the Christians nor the Muslims to stay in the Golan Heights.
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They pushed them into Syria and they kept only the Druze community, a small religious community
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that had some sort of pact with the Israeli regime.
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What do Palestinians see today as the solution to this?
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Because right now, at least from some of the reports, we're seeing a lot of the north being
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You know, there's so much rubble, it's ridiculous.
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The Israelis seem to be interested in the annihilation of the Palestinian people.
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It doesn't mean that they will kill anyone, sorry, it doesn't mean that they will kill
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everyone, but it means that we'll create the conditions that is necessary for people
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If you live in Gaza and you're a Christian or a Muslim, for that matter, and all the mosques
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were destroyed, all the hospitals are destroyed, the schools are destroyed, and even churches
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There's no reason left, and they're surrounding you, and they're not allowing food, and they're
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The natural thing to do is, the instinct of life is to follow life.
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We believe that the life of the human is the most precious, those people want to leave.
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The problem, though, that we're afraid that if we leave Gaza, that the same thing that
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happened in 1948 would happen again, that we will not be allowed back into our homes,
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that our homes will be confiscated, maybe, or destroyed, etc.
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80%, 80, 8-0% of the Christians in Gaza have lost their hand already.
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And the other issue is, also on the Palestinian side, the Palestinians are divided.
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You've got Hamas, who tend to be more radical, and they are more Islamist.
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And we, as Christians, do not believe in Islamism.
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Also, we don't believe in violent speed that targets Iranians.
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And on the other side, you've got the Palestinian Authority, which and the Palestinian Liberation
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Organization would tend to have a support of different factions, but it's shrinking,
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Because when you have a Palestinian party that is committed for the last 20 years to peaceful
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means, and Israel is not working with them or meeting with them, the Palestinians look
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at it, and they see that the peaceful means are not working.
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And they unfortunately turn toward an unpeaceful means.
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That's something that, for us as Christians, although we understand why our Muslims brothers
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and sisters would feel the needs for violence, we still reject it, and we think that it's
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But we understand that there is also a difference between fighting combatants' people and then
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I think earlier reports said it was cut off, but very few people know the extent of it.
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Are there people actually suffering from this right now?
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I mean, at the very beginning of the war, it was very clear that the head of the Israeli
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army said it very clear, we'll cut the water, we'll cut the electricity, we'll cut the food.
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We will, they will get nothing unless we get our hostages back.
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And he said, we're not fighting humans, we're fighting human animals.
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That's how he described the Palestinians, the most dehumanizing language that you could
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I was shocked that this is someone who claims to be an alliance of the West.
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And he's saying this language, and that's a language that was used by different people,
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It reached a point that there were no food whatsoever in the North, that during Lent,
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John, when people were fasting, Catholics were fasting in Gaza, they were able to only eat
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what Gant's, like, was thrown or whatever the Jordanians were throwing to them from the
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And until now in the North, for example, there was no food whatsoever.
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And imagine going through Lent, where you're supposed to fast from all sort of animal-related
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products, and you're literally not eating vegetables or not having access to it.
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It was that case in the North of Gaza specifically for so long.
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Things have changed slightly, but not dramatically.
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Yet after the horrendous crime of killing Ward Central Kitchen aid members, because then President
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Biden decided that he will push Israel for the first time.
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You have to start allowing aid after they killed Canadian citizens, American citizens, and
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And then we start seeing more aid to the North, which shows you again that they could
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They have accepted the idea that civilians have to pay the price of the crimes that Hamas
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has committed in October 7, and that is immoral, and that is very unbiblical as Christians
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I want to grow up in a Palestine that does not get bombed by Israel at any time, and nor
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do Palestinians have to go and attack by Israelis, soldiers or civilians.
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But at the same time, it cannot be peace that means the lack of violence.
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It does not mean that we don't have to have sea fighting.
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I believe in peace that does not have cheekbones, where me, as a Palestinian Christian, would
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be stopped at cheekbones and stripped or beaten up just for being a Palestinian.
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It happened to me more than 15 times as I was living in the West Bank after I moved from
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I believe in peace when Muslims and Christians and Jews are equal under the law and not treated
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differently, and that there is discrimination against Muslims or that there is discrimination
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And to achieve that, we believe there are two ways.
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There is one way, which is to give the Palestinians their own state and 18% of their historical
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That's not something we're asking for pity from Israel to give us.
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Just enax the entire land legally and give all Palestinians equal citizenship under the
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That's something that also Israel refuses to do, because guess what?
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It changes, quote unquote, the demography and the Jewish state ceases to be a Jewish state.
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And one of these options will lead us to peace.
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And I say Israel, not because I'm blaming Israel more than the Palestinians.
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But I say Israel because they have the power.
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If they want to end this tomorrow, they have the power and the backing of the West to do it.
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And if they want to repartuate violence, they have the power and the means to do it.
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Essentially, Israel is a clipped state for the U.S.
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No matter how we're trying to say to ourselves, Israel is powerful, Israel can do it by itself,
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Israel cannot do it by itself, cannot continue doing this by itself if it did not have the
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And it breaks my heart to see the U.S. support this genocidal attack in Gaza, someone who
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lives in the U.S., who loves his American friends, who loves this country.
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Truly, this is the only country in the world, and I'm not a citizen of the U.S. yet, that
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But although I'm not a citizen in this country, when I walk on the street, I don't feel attacked
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When in my own country, I was being attacked for being Christian, and I was being attacked
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for also being Palestinians by the Israeli Jews who lived there, and the army.
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It breaks my heart to see the U.S. supporting that.
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Now, when I see self-proclaimed Christians supporting that, self-proclaimed Christians
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who are supposed to care for me, somehow believe that a secular state, or not secular or not
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secular, a state, a temporal state, is somehow part of God's divine plan, and that it's sort
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And this state itself, since 1948, destroyed churches, pushed out churches, and pushed out
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Christians, and somehow they believe that this is the act of God, why would God push Christians
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This is our land, this is the Holy Land, why would God push out our people?
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But I know one thing, I don't really blame those Christians much, because I feel they are
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being manipulated, they are being manipulated by bad shepherds, obviously, pastors, and what
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you call theologians, that they really don't have the understanding of the tradition of
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the church, and how the church saw things historically, and they are being manipulated a lot of times
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Media did tend to portray a different view, where we as Christian Palestinians don't exist.
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I can tell you, Jean, you guys are the only and the first Western media to interview me
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And my tweet on the story got more than 3 million viewers.
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So, everyone, every mainstream media have seen my story, and understand what happened
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But somehow, the mainstream media is not concerned about what happened to us, or somehow they don't
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Right now, we've got a life funder going for Jason Jones, his organization Vulnerable People
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Project, and he's trying to help Christians and Palestinians leave the Gaza Strip, where
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And so, if you go to the link in this video, you'll be able to see that and help Jason enact
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We will pray for the repose of the soul of your deceased relatives, and pray for your
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So, let's all together pray for peace in the Holy Land, for Khalil, for his family, and
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for all of our brothers and sisters who are there suffering at this time.
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Check the links in the description to read more and connect with us on social media so
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that you can stay up to date with all the latest life, family, faith, and freedom news.