Father Gioele speaks out

"We had very difficult days, full of anxiety, particularly the past week when more and more missiles fell on the city. The last one fell just a minute before the cease fire. Now things are calmer.

"With relief", Father Gioele Salvaterra, parish priest of the community of Beer Sheva, capital of the Negev, in the south of Israel, tells the SIR news agency about the "tragic days" lived under the missiles lanced by Hamas from the Gaza Strip over the previous months . "It was difficult and dangerous for people to leave their homes and move about," explained Father Salvaterra, who, in order to celebrate the mass in this period, chose the most protected area in the presbytery.

"By all that my parishioners have told me, I could gather to what extent they were afraid and were concerned, in particular for the children and the elderly. However now," the priest originally from Bolzano adds, "with the cease fire, I hope we can begin to live a little more calmly. The hope of Father Salvaterra is that "the cease fire last and not be as fragile as it was in the past. We need peace and calm to return to our lives".

The community of Beer Sheba is made up of about 150 people, Israeli Jews and Arabs as well as immigrants from Russia, Rumania, Poland, India as well as French people, Italians, Portuguese, Dutch and Americans.

Read part of the SIR interview here

Read another article about the kehilla in Beer Sheva here