Christian organisations have renewed calls for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza as the death toll continued to mount.
In a joint statement, they called for “an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire” in the Israel-Gaza conflict. “Without a ceasefire, the foundations cannot be laid for a sustainable and just peace, in which all people in Israel and Palestine can live in security and with dignity.” They added that they had “grave concerns about the use of arms supplied by the UK to Israel, in possible breach of international humanitarian law”.
Archbishop of Glasgow William Nolan, Fr John Boles, director of Columban Missionaries in Britain, Patrick Watt, chief executive of Christian Aid and Tim Livesey, chief executive of Embrace the Middle East were among the signatories representing 21 organisations.
They called for the release of all hostages and for the UK Government to call out “any actions or use of language by those in positions of power that contribute to or seek to justify forcible transfer, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and other causes of civilian suffering”.
They called on the UK to support international accountability mechanisms, such as the International Criminal Court, to investigate all allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by any party to the conflict and for the UK Government “to conduct a transparent review of arms and military components sold from the UK and used by the Israeli military, and to suspend licences and sales until it can demonstrate that no UK-manufactured arms have been used in violation of international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
The statement, organised by Christian Aid, called for the UK government to be consistent in its calls for all parties to armed conflict to uphold international law, saying: “It has rightly condemned the atrocities of Hamas. It is yet to unequivocally condemn the mass killing by Israel of civilians in Gaza, or the denial of humanitarian access.”
Other organisations represented included Churches Together in England, Methodist Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Quakers in Britain, Iona Community, Justice and Peace Scotland and Pax Christi Scotland.
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