A British charity is appealing for nearly £3 million to help remove more than 1000 mines that surround churches at Qasr Al-Yahud near Jericho on the West Bank, one of the most sacred sites in the Christian world.
James Cowan, chief executive of the Halo Trust, told the BBC: "Our purpose is to help the Christian communities, the seven denominations here, help the Israelis, help the Palestinians to clear this site for all mankind. I believe it has an immediate value here, but has a purpose much more broadly across the world."
The site is on the River Jordan and is where Jesus is thought to have been baptised by John the Baptist, as described in Matthew 3.
More than 300,000 pilgrims visit the site each year, and many baptisms take place.
But nearby there are churches built more than 1000 years ago, and representing several ancient Christian denominations, that are currently unusable due to the 136-acre area surrounding them having been mined with explosives during the 1967 six-day war.
The site was closed after the war, but the area used for baptisms reopened in 2011. However, parts of the site are still unusable. Restorations overseen by the Israeli Civil Administration and the Israeli Ministry of Tourism began after the millennium.
It will take up to 20 months to clear all the mines. The aim is for it to achieve national park status, and to be safely accessible to all who wish to visit.
The Halo Trust has been granted approval by both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities and all eight Christian denominations to begin mine clearance at the site. The Israeli National Mine Action Authority approached the trust after successful mine clearance projects elsewhere in the West Bank.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said: "It is a source of much pain that a traditional site of the Baptism of Christ is now a site scarred by the debris of war. In making the land safe again, the Halo Trust is bringing a symbol of hope to a region that struggles with deeply-held divisions. At the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of reconciliation, so it is an inspiration to see Halo's work helping communities to overcome these divisions. Everybody wants to see this land returned to use by the local Churches as a place of peaceful prayer and worship. Halo is reaching across the divide to make this vision a reality."
