A bishop in Jerusalem has warned that the root causes of the Israel-Hamas conflict have yet to be addressed, despite the beginning of a ceasefire last week.
Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need, William Shomali, Auxiliary Bishop of Jerusalem, said, “The war between Hamas and Israel has ended but the conflict with its underlying causes didn’t end.”
His words echo the concerns of humanitarian organisations who last week warned that without a lasting peace agreement, the conflict was bound to flare up again.
William Bell, Head of Middle East Policy & Advocacy at Christian Aid, warned, “Returning to the old status quo will doom Palestinians and Israelis to more tragedy.”
Since 2008 there have been four notable military conflicts in Gaza, although the most recent has been by far the bloodiest.
Despite the appalling history of the region, Bishop Shomali urged Christians to keep praying as “nothing is impossible to God”.
He said, “A solution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict should be reached according to the international resolutions. It is not easy yet not impossible.”
Gaza’s only Catholic church, Holy Family Church, gave thanks for its first Sunday without bombs going off. A number of church parishioners were killed in the conflict, while its priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, was injured when an Israeli shell hit the church.
At least 57 Christians died during the two year conflict, mostly Catholics and Orthodox.
In his Sunday address Father Romanelli called for reconciliation and forgiveness for those who had failed.
“This ceasefire, God willing, will become the end of this atrocious war," he said.
“The long-awaited day has come to begin the implementation of the peace process or peace agreement … May God, in his goodness, grant the Holy Land – and particularly this part of the Holy Land, which is Palestine, Israel – that we may begin to live in peace, in justice, in reconciliation.”
