The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land offered condolences after 12 Druze children were killed when a rocket struck a football field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
The US and Israel blamed the attack on Lebanese group Hezbollah, though the Iran-backed militia denied involvement. Israel said Hezbollah would “pay the price” for the attack, prompting fears of wider regional conflict.
“We earnestly entreat all parties to abandon the path of conflict and arms, and to seek understanding and mutual respect,” said the ordinaries’ statement.
“The future of children and the welfare of our communities hinge upon our ability to transcend hatred and to embrace the principles of compassion and coexistence.”
Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Address to the US Congress on 24 July, where he told lawmakers “our enemies are your enemies”, more than 200 bishops and Christian leaders signed a statement urging international powers to end their complicity in atrocities committed in Gaza amid the war between Israel and Hamas.
“As Christians and people of peace, we call on the international community and global institutions to end all arms flows into the conflict zone and to end various states’ attempts to frustrate legal remedies being sought in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice in response to war crimes alleged against both sides and the ‘plausible’ accusation that Israeli action in Gaza could amount to genocide,” they said.
The leaders called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a halt to arms sales to Israel to prevent of a broader regional war, warning that “a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah is an imminent possibility”.
They were also called for the release of hostages and prisoners held without due process of law, and for the unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid to civilians.
The letter said that “atrocities” since October 2023, “stain the conscience of all humanity, and in this, we include ourselves as Christian leaders and the global church”. It deplored the killings of more than 39,000 people in Gaza by the Israeli military, and widespread destruction of homes, hospitals, schools, and universities.
“Not only the livelihoods but even the wherewithal to maintain the most basic subsistence of two million people has been erased,” it said, adding that “children are dying of malnutrition”.
The Christian leaders also said that a “bloody confrontation has been developing in the West Bank between Israeli security forces, often working together with or alongside armed settler groups, against Palestinians – especially, but not only, those living in refugee camps”. More than 520 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank so far this year.
“On all sides of this conflict, belief in the possibility of peace and the commitment to non-violent approaches is waning and the window for constructive dialogue between combatant parties is rapidly closing” said the letter.
“Without decisive action now, the consequences of this drift to deeper, broader, and more entrenched conflict will be more destruction and loss of innocent lives,” it continued.
“It is time for the international community, as well as Israeli, Palestinian, and regional decision makers, to act. Our common humanity demands it.”
The signatories also said the Christian presence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories – “the very place where our faith tradition began” – was under theat.
More than three per cent of the Christian community in Gaza has been killed since October, including 18 Christians in an airstrike on St Porphyrius Orthodox Church. Dozens of Christian families throughout the West Bank have left due to the occupation, increased violence, and economic pressures.
“Christians and their significant contributions to civil society could soon disappear from the Holy Land,” said the signatories. “Violence, impunity, denigration, frustration, and flouting of the rules-based international order must stop.”
Among the signatories were Catholic prelates including Cardinal Alvaro Ramazzini of Huehuetenango, in Guatemala, Bishop Stephen Lowe of Auckland, and Archbishop William Nolan of Glasgow.
The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba also signed the letter, as did heads of aid agencies such a Christine Allen, director of Cafod, and Alistair Dutton, secretary general of Caritas Internationalis.
Last week, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and Knights of Malta sent a second delivery of relief supplies to the Catholic parish in Gaza.
“In addition to the provision of non-perishable food, ready-to-eat meals and specialised food for malnourished children and adults as well as other essential supplies, plans are underway to identify ways to provide medical care on the ground,” said the patriarchate.
UNESCO announced that it had put Gaza’s Monastery of Saint Hilarion, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, on its list of World Heritage sites in danger, due to “imminent threats” from the war.
The monastery was the first monastic community in the Holy Land, laying the foundation for the spread of monasticism in the region. The site houses the ruins of the monastery of Saint Hilarion with its two churches, a burial site, a baptism hall, a public cemetery, an audience hall and dining rooms.
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