A year ago today I was in Gaza. The Mediterranean glistened, the streets were busy and the shops looked well stocked. Whilst there were plenty signs of poverty, it was a vibrant place, full of different sounds and the smell of spices.
I sat down to a delicious lunch, including the freshest of dates, with my friend Archbishop Hosam, the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, and the senior medical staff of the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza City.
The hospital is an Anglican institution which at the time was serving the poorest people in Gaza, pioneering breast cancer prevention and treatment, and specialising in child health.
Little did any of us sitting round that table know that less than three days later Hamas would launch a horrific and brutal attack on Israel with a wave of torture and killing.
It was the biggest loss of Jewish life in one day since the atrocity of the Nazi holocaust. The evidence that has emerged since is truly unimaginable.
It includes the worst possible de-humanising crimes.
Whilst in Gaza I was given a priest’s stole embroidered by a Palestinian Christian woman.
Little did I know that the red embroidery would come to symbolise for me so much bloodshed.
I was back in Jerusalem on October 7 and, in the subsequent days, took cover in a bomb shelter when in-bound Hamas rockets were fired.
The early warning system gave me a 90 second warning........