Archbishop: Attack on Gaza health clinic ‘incomprehensible’
by Jenna Lyle
Posted: Wednesday, January 14, 2009, 8:48 (GMT)
“The world needs to wake up and stop this. They need to wake up and end the siege and the occupation. Then there will be some time for peace and reconciliation,” said Dabbagh.
“Otherwise, this bloody atmosphere will continue. The responsibility of the superpowers, including the US and Britain, is to stop these horrors.
“If it does not we will all encounter more miserable conditions in the future, God forbid.”
Janet Symes, Christian Aid’s head of Middle East Region, visited the clinic last year. She said: “It was standing room only as so many mothers had brought their babies and small children for check ups or treatment.
“The doctors were telling me how they’d increased their hours but still needed more staff to be able to cope with the huge numbers of patients. Now the whole clinic lies in ruins. All the equipment is destroyed.
“This just underlines how critical an immediate ceasefire is to stop this destruction.”
Another Christian hospital in the city is, meanwhile, struggling to cope with the high volume of patients from the current conflict and a shortage in fuel, food and other essential items.
Al Ahli Hospital said many of its staff members were working without rest to treat the 40 new patients coming in every day as a result of the conflict, many in need of surgery.
BibleLands, a Christian agency working in the Middle East, is releasing £10,000 to support the hospital.
Chief Executive, Nigel Edward-Few, said it had been advised against making payments directly into the hospital's bank account because the banks in Gaza do not have the physical money to pay out.
"Even if the money were available, there is little or nothing to buy in Gaza," he said.
Biblelands has instead sent the funds to the Diocese of Jerusalem, which will take supplies into Gaza from Jerusalem via trucks that are allowed entry during the three hour ceasefires.
Mr Edward-Few added, "It is impossible for us to imagine the true extent of the crisis in Gaza and we are keen to make sure we support our partners in the most effective way possible."
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Added: Monday, January 19, 2009, 22:15 (GMT)
Will people, especially politicians and self righteous PC religious leaders, not realise (or they completely ignore) the following:
1) Hamas, and other (so-called radical) Islamic groups, are all for wiping out Israel and the Jews in any way possible - it's in the Koran.
2) If any other country in the world had suffered rocket attacks, whether or not they harmed any, or many, citizens, it would be considered an as act of war.
3) Hamas deliderately places rocket launching sites in Gaza's populated areas, thus inviting an Israeli response, especially as modern weaponry is fire-and-forget, so pilots quite often don't fully identify their targets as anything but a weapons platform.
4) Hamas is an illegal government, having ousted Fatah, the officially recognised govt of Gaza, especially by Israel, in a civil war - how many Gazans died because of that war and not (properly) reported, nor propagandized by the opposing sides - and forced Gazans to vote them in, in a travesty of a 'democratic' vote, under threats of who-knows-what.
5) In reference to (3) - the US hospital which was attacked had civilian non-combatants in there, not just because it was a hospital, BUT because Hamas herded them into it, placed a rocket platform on the roof, fired it and buggered off, leaving the civilians to their fate - then used the result as propaganda - in fact, a Hezbollah operative was seen to have hysterically pionted out the SAME DEAD BODY OF A CHILD to no less than FIVE different TV crews, at different times, all of this recorded by independent observers and therefore a matter of record, if the Archbishop of Wales will get his head out of the sand and research the facts before making these fatuous remarks!! The BBC won't report that.
6) And, finally (for now), Mohammed states in the Koran that treaties can be brokered for up to ten (10) years, to allow for the regrouping and rearming of their forces, and resume their attack, for the furtherance of Islam. Therefore, do not hold your breath at the veracity or length of this possible peace treay being currently brokered between Hamas and Israel, via Egypt. It won't last, Hamas will break it, blame Israel, and the West, not wanting to 'upset' Islamic states, will swallow it whole.
We are heaing toward the last of the Times of the Gentiles, and as Ezekiel told us about - in Chapters 38 -39 -, and the situations described in Daniel, in Revelations, and as told us by Jesus Himself, and recorded in the Gospels. We are to pray for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem - which is rarely heard in C of E churches, if at all - and True Christians are to be aware of the signs of the times. These are even more prevalent than at any time in human history. Then PRAY.
Archbishop of Wales, go back to your Bible and study these things as soon as possible.
Chris Maguire, Ventnor, IOW, UK
Added: Wednesday, January 14, 2009, 14:41 (GMT)
The Archbishop, along with many other Bishops and Christian leaders have all been strangely silent concerning the 8,000 rocket attacks on innocent Israelis. If he and the others also condemned attacks by terror groups such groups, his words may carry weight.
If he condemned the fact that the Hamas stored armaments in schools and mosques, then he would have a voice.
If he condemned the racist books used in UN and "Christian" schools, books which say that Jewish people are the offspring of pigs and monkeys, then he would have a voice.
As it is, his views will be seen as supportive of the murders of innocent Jews.
Adrian, Leeds, UK
