The smell of fresh white paint lingers in the air, and the glimmer of the small gate catches the eye. The Catholic-affiliated School of the Holy Family has tried hard to hide the traces of black left by burning tires. Inside, Al-Monitor’s reporter waits for an interview in the office of Father Jorge Hernandez, the school's headmaster, but he declines to speak to the press.

This is what typically happens when talk concerns Christians in the Gaza Strip. It is a delicate subject that no one wishes to address, especially after incidents like the one on April 13, when at dawn a small group of youths burned tires in front of the school’s gate, smashed cameras and broke windows.

Ayman al-Batniji, spokesman for the Gaza Police, explained to Al-Monitor that the episode involved soccer. The school’s guard had prohibited adolescent boys from the neighborhood from playing soccer in the schoolyard and reported them to the police. Afterward, the youths took their revenge. Batniji stressed that the boys' actions were not, by any means, a sectarian attack.

Civic activist Mustafa Ibrahim, however, believes that the police department should have dealt with the issue without delay, particularly given that the attack coincided with new educational laws that ban mixed-gender schools. The laws are aimed at Islamizing the Gaza Strip, which has led some to believe that the attack on the school was the result of incitement, most likely by extremist groups.