Caritas cancels Jerusalem visit as wider war looms

Caritas Internationalis, alongside the World Council of Churches and ACT Alliance, cancelled an ecumenical visit to Jerusalem and the West Bank last week because of the growing threat of a wider war in the region.

The delegation called for “an immediate, unconditional, permanent ceasefire and an end to the indiscriminate bombardment and killing of civilians”.

Alistair Dutton, secretary general of Caritas Internationalis, condemned the continued violence of the Israel Defence Force (IDF) offensive in Gaza.

“We are appalled by the complete disregard for human life and the disproportionate, indiscriminate attacks which have repeatedly driven people from where they have already fled and pulverised their surroundings to smithereens,” he said.  

“The level of human suffering is outrageous: people are on the point of starvation, there is no water, electricity, drainage or sewage, health care has collapsed with direct hits on hospitals and clinics, and the absence of even the most basic medical supplies. The border remains closed and people are actively deprived of the humanitarian assistance they so desperately need.”

The group called for “an immediate end to all supply of weapons to Israel for as long as they continue to attack Palestine in this manner”.

On 10 August an airstrike on a mosque in a school compound in Gaza City killed around 100 people, 11 of them children according to reports. The IDF said the mosque housed an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility, but Hamas denied that any combatants dief in the strike.

The same day Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem lamented the “terrible war” in the Middle East and asked for earnest prayers for reconciliation and peace, ahead of the Feast of the Assumption on 15 August.

He said it has become “increasingly difficult to envision a conclusion to this conflict, whose impact on the lives of our people is greater and more painful than ever before”, adding that it was also “increasingly difficult to find people and institutions with whom a dialogue about the future and peaceful relations” was possible, amid “so much violence and, admittedly, anger”.

At the Angelus on 11 August, Pope Francis restated his plea for world peace, and referred to the Middle East, as well as Ukraine, Sudan, and Myanmar, echoing remarks from his general audience on 7 August: “May there be an immediate ceasefire on all fronts, starting with Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very serious and unsustainable.”

In the West Bank, Israeli forces have arrested over 10,000 Palestinians since last October while settler violence has escalated.

Last month, 21 Israeli organisations, including Rabbis for Human Rights, produced a joint report on “The State of the Occupation”.  They criticised the “racist and inflammatory rhetoric and policies” of Israeli government ministers, and the “weakening of safeguards for human rights”.

In Lebanon, Christians were among the groups displaced from villages close to the Israeli border as the threat of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, backed by Iran, increased. The Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi has emphasised the importance of keeping Lebanon out of war. 

In Iraq, the Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako said the people of the Middle East were still in “a state of fears and worries” a decade after the first Islamic State attacks.

“Everyone declares that they are against war, but they equip themselves and fight. Peace must be an absolute commitment,” he said, urging Western powers to “stop financing conflicts ‘by proxy’ and work hard to build peace and stability everywhere”.  He planned a Day of Prayer for Peace on 14 August.

On Monday morning, the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin spoke on a call to Masoud Pezeshkian, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Cardinal Parolin expressed the Holy See’s deep concern over tensions in the Middle East, reiterating the need to avoid the widening of the conflict and to dedicate every effort for dialogue, negotiation and peace.

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