Father Gabriel Romanelli came to Gaza following his missionary vocation. A native of Buenos Aires, he entered the novitiate of the Institute of the Incarnate Word at the age of 18. His superiors asked him to go to the Middle East as a seminarian.

After his priestly ordination and two years spent in Egypt to learn Arabic, his first destination was Jordan. Then Archbishop Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, asked him to go as formator to the patriarchal Seminary of Beit Jala, where he taught philosophical subjects in Arabic and French for 14 years. He arrived in Gaza in 2019 as the new parish priest of the Church of the Holy Family.