The Occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank are home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. But today in Gaza, the Israeli bombardment of churches and Palestinian Christian neighborhoods is pushing that community to the brink of extinction. And in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler expansion and travel restrictions not only make it difficult for Palestinian Christians there to practice their faith, but can even classify them as illegals in their own home.

Khalil Sayegh, a Palestinian Christian and former resident of both occupied Gaza and the occupied West Bank, joins Mehdi to discuss the consequences of Israel’s war, and how Israeli aggression isn’t only killing the Palestinian Christians of today, but the Palestinian Christians of tomorrow as well. 

“We’re less than a thousand [Christian] people in Gaza, we’re allowed to only marry Christians, and there are almost no Christians to marry anymore,” says Khalil, who lost his father and sister in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. 

Watch the full interview above to hear why Sayegh is not allowed to return to his homeland of Palestine, his reasoning as to why Christian evangelicals in the US are turning a blind eye to the Christians of occupied Gaza, and his heartbreaking stories of loss from the embattled strip. 

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