JERUSALEM — The guns may be silent, but the 4,500 Christians who live in the Gaza Strip alongside 1.5 million Muslims remain traumatized and fearful.

The bloody Palestinian infighting that resulted in more than 100 deaths in the cramped, poverty-stricken area in mid-June has lessened. For more than a week, Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which Israel relinquished in August 2005, were trapped in their homes as battles raged between Fatah, the faction loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, the Islamic faction that seized control of Gaza by force.

“It was horrible, the death and killing,” Msgr. Manuel Musallam, pastor of Holy Family parish in Gaza, said in a phone interview. “The children and parents were frightened and traumatized. We felt we were facing death at any time.”

Msgr. Musallam said that many families in his parish and elsewhere fled their homes “because they were close to the clashes. Some sustained damage from bullets and others were burned by rockets. The houses have not been repaired so people cannot return.”

Dr. Bandalay E-Sayegh, an Orthodox Christian and director of Caritas’ Gaza Medical Center, remains in Gaza, but said that his home had been damaged during the fighting.

“There are holes in my house from the shooting,” he said. “My children were so frightened. We stayed in the hallway because it was too dangerous to sleep in our bedrooms.”

On June 14, Msgr. Musallam said, “unknown gunmen” armed with rocket-propelled grenades forced their way into the Rosary Sisters’ compound and stole precious sacred objects. He said the compound sustained hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.

Msgr. Musallam said the attackers had also stolen computers, destroyed all the crosses in the compound, burned copies of the Bible and smashed a statue of Jesus.

“This is more than vandalism,” he said. “They forced open the door and entered and destroyed everything. They even set the sisters’ beds on fire.”

The three sisters who live and work at the compound were not present, Msgr. Musallam said, with gratitude in his voice.

“We are trying to raise money to repair the damage,” the parish priest said, noting that the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem has said “it does not have the money to assist us.”

Msgr. Musallam said the situation has improved dramatically in Gaza since the most intense days of fighting.

“There are not battles on the streets, no shooting. People are going to work, and we were even able to send a small bus of students from our school to the seashore. The restaurants are open and the city is cleaner.”

But despite the improvement, Palestinian civilians live in constant fear, the priest said.

“How long this quiet will endure we don’t know,” Msgr. Musallam said. “Is this the calm before the storm?”

Despite the very personal nature of the attack on the Rosary Sisters’ compound, Msgr. Musallam was careful not to blame Muslims.

“It is not the time to distinguish between Christians and Muslims,” he said. “We have Muslim families living among us; we have Muslim employees in the school. They are our friends and neighbors. When I ask the world for assistance, I cannot only ask that they help Christians. We are all Palestinians.”

Msgr. Musallam said that President Abbas called him soon after the attack “and condemned it in the strongest possible terms.”

While Fatah blames Hamas for the attack on the Christian compound, Islam Shahwan, spokesman for Hamas’ executive force in the Gaza Strip, denied responsibility in an interview with the Jerusalem Post.

“We will punish anyone who targets churches and public institutions,” Shahwan said. In Gaza, Msgr. Musallam said, the various Christian denominations do not argue over Church property or resources. Of the 4,500 Christians living in Gaza, he said, just 250 are Catholics.

“Here, we are all Christians,” he said.

Political unrest, Msgr. Musallam stressed, is not just about physical security, but about financial security as well.

“The people are poor — they need help,” he said. “If they receive help they will not ask to emigrate. If they have enough food, the Christians will remain in Gaza.”

Clearly, the Christian churches feel helpless in the face of the Gaza violence. There is little they can do, church leaders privately admit, other than shore up their embattled brethren.

On June 14, Christian leaders in the Holy Land, including the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, called on warring Palestinian factions to put an end to their fighting.

“This domestic fighting where the brother draws his weapon in the face of his brother is detrimental to all the aspirations of achieving security and stability for the Palestinian people,” the joint letter said.

They appealed to the factions’ dreams of a Palestinian state, and noted that the fighting threatens the Palestinians’ “hope of attaining independence together with freedom from occupation.”

“In the name of the one and only God, as well as in the name of each devastated Palestinian, many of whom are still dying, we urge our brothers in the Fatah and Hamas movements to listen to the voice of reason, truth and wisdom,” the letter said.

“On the recent 40th anniversary of the [Israeli] occupation, we urge all sides to work for peace and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. How painful and awful then that now we have to say: ‘Stop all domestic fighting,’” the leaders said.

In May, Pope Benedict XVI made a personal appeal for peace in Gaza.

“The fighting between Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip and the rocket attacks against the inhabitants of nearby Israeli cities, which have provoked military intervention, are bringing about a bloody deterioration of the situation and causing dismay,” the Pope said May 20 after praying the “Regina Coeli” with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.

“Once again, in the name of God, I ask that an end be brought to this tragic violence, while to the suffering Palestinian and Israeli populations I desire to express my solidarity and assurance of my prayerful remembrance,” the Pope said.

Asked what Christians around the world can do for their Palestinian brethren, Msgr. Musallam replied, “Pray.”

“The more we pray, the closer we are to each other,” he said. “I ask the world to organize prayers on our behalf because the situation is so insecure. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”

CNS and Zenit contributed to this report. Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem.