Following his recent visit to the Holy Land to support local Caritas Jerusalem staff and volunteers, Alistair Dutton, Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis said, “It was intense and emotional. Caritas staff described their pain, frustration and powerlessness that they are not able to reach their colleagues or help the communities in Gaza. They have set up ‘call trees’ so that each person is responsible for keeping in touch with one or more colleagues in Gaza. They keep trying to get through but only about on in fifty calls connect and often the communications are down for hours at a time. In the meantime, they have no idea whether their colleagues are alive or not. One of the other things that people said was so stressful is that they have no idea what will happen next.”
During his visit, Mr. Dutton also met with the Palestinian Authority for the Ministry of Health, HE Dr. Mai Kalieh, to hear about the total disruption of healthcare in Gaza following the declaration of war. The day before this meeting, the building adjacent to the shelter where Caritas staff taken refuge in Gaza was shelled. “They just had first aid kits and rushed into the street to give first aid with the basic equipment they had available,” Mr. Dutton said. “They have medical supplies that are about two kilometres away from a clinic – it might be less than that – and they are unable to move the medical supplies where they’re needed because it’s not safe to move.” Five minutes before the meeting began the UNRWA Al Fakhora school was deliberately shelled and, as we sat talking, we watched with horror live images of the destruction of the school and the bodies of more than 200 people killed in the attack.
The situation in the West Bank is also deteriorating rapidly with increasing attacks by settlers, threats to civilian lives, restrictions of free movement, arbitrary detentions and widespread degrading treatment of Palestinian populations. More than 7,000 people are currently arbitrarily detained in the West Bank.
In Bethlehem, daily life has been disrupted as since October 7 people’s travel permits have been cancelled, preventing them from moving freely in and out of the city. These travel restrictions have not only significantly impacted the local tourism industry, but have stopped about 200,000 workers living in the West Bank from getting to work and earn their living to support their families or pay rent.
Mr. Dutton stated that the deteriorating situation affecting innocent populations in Gaza, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the West Bank will only worsen if the warring parties fail to:
- Make the temporary ceasefire permanent, urgently de-escalate the hostilities and pursue a path to durable peace for all people in the Holy Land to live harmoniously together;
- Urgently grant unimpeded safe humanitarian access to and across all of Gaza, and allow large scale aid operations, including through the reopening of the Karem Abu Salem crossing. Reinstate reliable basic services, including water, electricity, communications, and humanitarian and commercial deliveries of food, basic household items and fuel;
- Protect civilians, distinguishing between civilians and combatants in accordance with the Geneva Conventions;
- Respect International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law
- Immediately and unconditionally release civilians held hostage and all those arbitrarily detained, and ensure that all hostages and those detained are treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity;
Caritas therefore joins its voice with people of good will who are working together for peace, understanding and reconciliation, and for a durable, just future for all peoples in the Holy Land and the region of the Middle East.