Cardinal calls Israel's policy in Gaza ‘morally unjustifiable' after visit

The Guardian

7 days ago

Israel's government is pursuing an 'unacceptable and morally unjustifiable' policy in Gaza, the Catholic Latin patriarch of Jerusalem said after visiting a church in the territory that was attacked by Israeli forces last week and meeting survivors.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said he witnessed extreme hunger on the brief trip, his first into Gaza this year, and described Israeli blocks on food and medical shipments as a 'sentence' for starving Palestinians.
'Humanitarian aid is not only necessary, it is a matter of life and death,' he told journalists in Jerusalem after the visit. 'Every hour without food, water, medicine and shelter causes deep harm.'
Pizzaballa travelled to Gaza with the Greek Orthodox patriarch Theophilos III, in a show of cross-denominational solidarity after the attack on the Holy Family church that killed three people and injured nine others including the priest, Gabriel Romanelli, who used to receive daily calls from the late Pope Francis.
The cardinal accused Israel's government of pursuing a war without justification, and warned against plans to force Palestinians to leave the territory, which are backed by much of the Israeli cabinet.
'We need to say with frankness and clarity that this policy of the Israeli government in Gaza is unacceptable and morally we cannot justify it,' he said. 'There can be no future based on captivity, displacement of Palestinians or revenge.'
After international pressure over the attack on the church, including from Donald Trump, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the pope to express 'regret' for the attack, which he said was caused by 'stray ammunition'.
Some Catholic leaders have questioned that explanation, which the Vatican's top diplomat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said 'can legitimately be doubted' in an interview with Italy's state broadcaster.
Asked whether he thought Israeli forces had targeted the church, Pizzaballa said he did not have the military expertise to assess the damage, but regardless of intention, Christians had repeatedly been attacked and killed by Israeli forces.
'Gaza is almost totally destroyed, and nobody is exempted,' he said. 'This is not the first time it happened. There was also [attacks on] the Holy Family and St Porphyrius in the first weeks of the war. And every time it was a mistake.'
Israel has issued evacuation orders for the areas surrounding the two compounds where Gaza's Christians have taken shelter during the war, but the community of about 560 people does not intend to leave.
'They know very well that we are determined to remain,' Pizzaballa said when asked whether the Christians would follow the evacuation orders.
In the months since his last visit, at the end of last year, destruction of whole neighbourhoods had left parts of Gaza City unrecognizable, Pizzaballa said. Neighbourhoods around the Christian-run al-Ahli hospital, which the clerics visited, were 'totally erased' he said, reduced to rubble.
Inside the hospital wards the delegation met doctors and nurses who described patients too malnourished to heal, and met victims of other attacks.
Pizzaballa sounded emotional as he described speaking to a father keeping watch at the bedside of his blind, badly injured son, the only survivor of his six children. 'It was difficult to bear,' he said of the meeting.
Hunger is everywhere, Pizzaballa said, describing long queues of people waiting hours in the sun, in hope of something to eat as 'a humiliation that is hard to bear when you see it with your own eyes'.
Israel authorised church authorities to take 500 tonnes of aid into Gaza after the attack on the Holy Family. The complex logistics meant the food could not cross the border with the delegation, but people are so hungry that news of the planned delivery brought crowds to the church and even members of the congregation had to be shown proof their leaders had come empty-handed.
The community is surviving on small rations of mostly bread and rice, and told Pizzaballa that they had not eaten meat, fruit or vegetables since February.
He called for an end to the war and said the Christian community saw it as 'our moral duty to be part of reconciliation' when peace comes.
'After almost two years of war I think everyone starts thinking and arrives at the conclusion that it is about time to stop it.'