Vatican City
Reuters
Pope Francis criticised on Monday what he called the “shameful inability” of the international community to end the war in the Middle East, one year after Hamas’ devastating attack on Israel.
Pope Francis looks on, at a mass to open the Synod of Bishops in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, on 2nd October, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File photo
“A year ago, the fuse of hatred was lit; it did not sputter, but exploded in a spiral of violence,” he said in an open letter to Catholics in the region.
“It seems that few people care about what is most needed and what is most desired: dialogue and peace,” he wrote. “Violence never brings peace. History proves this, yet years and years of conflict seem to have taught us nothing.”
Francis, who has also made Monday a day of fasting and prayers for peace for Catholics globally, has spoken more openly in recent weeks about the Hamas-Israel conflict, and has become more vocal in his criticism of Israel’s military campaign.
On 29th September, the 87-year-old pontiff criticised Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon that killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as well as non-combatants, suggesting the airstrikes went “beyond morality”.
Earlier in September, the Pope called Israel’s actions in Lebanon “unacceptable” and urged the international community to do everything possible to halt the fighting.
In his letter on Monday, Francis directly addressed Gazans: “I am with you, the people of Gaza, long embattled and in dire straits. You are in my thoughts and prayers daily,” he wrote.
“I am with you, who have been forced to leave your homes, to abandon schooling and work and to find a place of refuge from the bombing…I am with you, who are afraid to look up for fear of fire raining down from the skies,” he said.
Meanwhile, the World Council of Churches General Secretary, Rev Prof Dr Jerry Pillay, reiterated calls for a ceasefire on “all fronts”.
“Hamas must release all the remaining hostages immediately and unconditionally,” he said in a statement. “Israel must release Palestinian political prisoners and move swiftly to ending its occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people in the territories occupied since 1967, and guarantee equal human rights for all people in its territory, regardless of race, religion or origin. And all members of the international community must end their complicity in sustaining conflict, occupation and oppression in the region.”
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Earlier in the statement, Pillay said Hamas’ “brutal attack on southern Israel” in which “numerous atrocities were committed in utter violation of the most fundamental principles of international law and morality” was the “catalyst for a year of escalating and widening conflict in the region”.
He added that the “enormity of Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza is shockingly unacceptable”.
“It has exponentially compounded the violations and suffering inflicted on innocent civilians, with more than 41,700 people killed – including over 16,000 children – a further nearly 100,000 people wounded, and over 10,000 missing and presumed dead underneath the rubble, according to health authorities in the enclave. Around 1.9 million people – 90 [per cent] of the population of Gaza – have been forcibly displaced from their homes, many multiple times, and almost half a million people are facing catastrophic food insecurity, while Gaza’s critical infrastructure, medical and education services, housing, economy, farmland, and fishing fleets have largely been laid to waste.”
He said the war in Gaza “has made the territory unliveable, and has given rise to claims of genocide which have been judged by the International Court of Justice as plausible”.
Pillay also said “violent attacks” and other violations by illegal settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem had risen sharply during the period and that “extremist elements in Israeli society” had “escalated their threats against and attacks on Christian communities, clergy, churches and institutions, in most cases without criminal sanction”.
He said the conflict had “massively amplified tensions in the wider region” and the fighting in Lebanon and hostilities between Israel and Iran “now threaten an even wider conflict, setting the whole Middle East region ablaze, and compounding the existing threats to global peace and stability”.
“One year after the attacks of 7 October 2023, Israel and its adversaries seem locked in a deadly spiral of violence, accelerating by the day, which risks throwing the whole region into intractable conflict with profound humanitarian and security consequences for all its peoples. In this context, the already grave threats to the future presence of the indigenous Christian communities of the Holy Land are reaching an existential tipping point….”
“The only solution is to break the cycle of violence, to refrain from more killing and destruction, and to engage in dialogue and negotiations for a peace founded on justice and equal rights for all.”
– With DAVID ADAMS/Sight
