Cafod ‘appalled’ by Israeli attacks breaking Gaza ceasefire

‘A return to war will cause further suffering and loss of life – and may prevent the release of hostages.’

Cafod condemned the airstrikes by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) that broke the Gaza ceasefire overnight, killing more than 400 people according to reports on Tuesday evening.

The aid agency was “appalled by Israel’s renewed bombing of Gaza”, said its Middle East Country Programme Representative Elizabeth Funnell. “A return to war will cause further suffering and loss of life – and may prevent the release of hostages,” she said. “Our thoughts are with our partners who have been working tirelessly to provide support to the people of Gaza.”

Caritas Jerusalem suspended its operations in Gaza. “We plead for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the bloodshed before more innocent lives are lost,” it said in a statement.

Funnell said the UK “must urgently and unequivocally condemn the atrocities committed by Israeli forces” and work “to restore the ceasefire and ensure the sustained delivery of much needed humanitarian aid”, as well as halting arms sales “to prevent their violent use in violation of international law”.

Many Gazans fasting for Ramadan were eating their pre-dawn meal when the airstrikes began. The Israeli government said the attack was the start of military operations to achieve their “war objectives” and retrieve the 59 hostages still held by Hamas, which accused it of breaking the ceasefire agreed in January after long negotiations.

Conditions in Gaza were already worsening, as Israel maintained its humanitarian blockade last week and cut off electricity supplies. The head of the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini, speaking in Geneva, warned of a renewed hunger crisis if aid supplies did not resume.

Israel barred the entry of all aid to Gaza at the beginning of March, accusing Hamas of rejecting a US proposal to extend the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire. When the truce began, aid supplies increased tenfold, easing food shortages and restoring some health services. Now those supplies have been blocked and electricity to a major water desalination plant has been cut. A spokesman for the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said this would substantially reduce the availability of drinking water in Gaza.

Caritas Jerusalem warned that “aid to Gaza is a drop in the ocean”. Its secretary general Anton Asfar warned of “catastrophic consequences”, particularly famine, “as many people have been malnourished for months”. He reported that with no sanitation systems or drinking water, “disease in the area is growing rapidly”.

Caritas was running a medical centre in Gaza, which moved to the Catholic and Orthodox parishes in order to continue operating. It also ran mobile medical units. According to Asfar, most Gazans wish to continue living in their land, despite the destruction it has suffered.

One million children in the Gaza Strip are at risk of not receiving life-saving support, according to UNICEF. On Sunday, it called for a lasting ceasefire and unrestricted aid delivery to be resumed, denouncing prohibitions on the delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid.

Edouard Beigbeder, its Middle East and North Africa Regional Director, condemned the refusal to allow delivery of more than 180,000 doses of vaccines and 20 ventilators for neonatal intensive care units to be delivered to Gaza. “Tragically, approximately 4,000 newborns are currently unable to access essential lifesaving care due to the major impact on medical facilities in the Gaza Strip,” he reported.

West Bank Christians face worse situation since Gaza ceasefire

Who won the Gaza war?

Christian peace groups emphasised the decades-long history of violence in Gaza on 16 March, marking the anniversary of the 23-year-old US peace activist Rachel Corrie who was run over and killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 while standing in front of a Palestinian home with a family still inside protesting against its demolition.

The Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), part of the Sabeel international peace movement founded by Palestinian Christians, issued a statement last week affirming Palestinians’ “inalienable right to freedom and dignity in their ancestral homeland”.

It was also signed by Pax Christi International together with national Pax Christi members, and other Christian organisations including Medical Mission Sisters, the Justice Office of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship and the World Student Christian Federation.

The signatories rejected “the misuse of Christian teachings to justify violence, ethnic cleansing, and injustice”, in response to what they called “a deeply immoral statement” on 27 February from more than 3,000 “Christian Zionist” leaders affiliated with American Christian Leaders for Israel (ACLI), “a project of the extremist International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem”. It had called on President Trump to declare Israeli sovereignty over the entirety of the Holy Land. 

The FOSNA statement said: “We must publicly renounce such efforts and make it clear that those affiliated with ACLI do not speak on behalf of Christians or Christianity.  Moreover, we must categorically reject any thinly-disguised plan to annex Palestinian land and engage in continued violence against innocent civilians in the occupied West Bank, in Gaza, and beyond.”

They affirmed their solidarity with the Palestinian Christian communities of the Holy Land, “and we honour their witness when they warn us that the world’s oldest, continuous Christian community is in danger of extinction”. They voiced support for other communities too, emphasising that “a mosaic of different faiths and ethnic communities have lived in the Holy Land for centuries, and the attempt to erase any of them or make exclusive claims for one, at the expense of all others, is a crime against God and all humankind”.

In the West Bank, Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) reported that in the village of Ramadin, south Hebron, IDF troops dug deep trenches along the road “preventing Palestinians from accessing and running their shops, which are their primary source of livelihood”. The IDF also demolished several shops while further tightening restrictions on Palestinian movement in the area. CPT commented that “the ongoing excavation and destruction of Palestinian businesses highlights the occupation’s broader goal to undermine Palestinian livelihoods, to isolate communities, and to enforce displacement”.

Last Friday, Rabbis for Human Rights announced the conclusion of a tree planting season in the West Bank, describing it as “a season of resilience, solidarity, and hope”. The group planted over 1,000 trees alongside Palestinian communities, with hundreds of volunteers from across Israel joining them. They also planted trees with displaced communities on the Northern Israel-Lebanon border and with Bedouin residents of Rahat in Southern Israel.

Rabbis for Human Rights said: “Every tree planted is an act of defiance against displacement, a commitment to justice, and a step toward a future rooted in partnership. Together, Israelis and Palestinians are proving that a different reality is possible – one where we cultivate, not destroy.”

Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, the prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches, wrote to Catholic bishops worldwide on 17 March, inviting them to promote the annual Good Friday Collection to support Christians in the Holy Land and the Church’s mission to care for the places linked to Jesus’ earthly life. Cardinal Gugerotti urged the bishops to convey the Church’s appeal, “in response to the cry of those who are suffering so much”.

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