Gaza: History will not forgive this barbarism and complicity: July 20, 2025

Caritas International published the following editorial on its website about the situation in Gaza. This is the Vatican’s charity organization that is on the ground in Gaza. Last week, the only Catholic Church in Gaza was damaged by an Israeli air strike.

Gaza: History will not forgive this barbarism and complicity

What Caritas sees:

On Thursday 17 July, Israeli forces callously attacked the Holy Family Church in Gaza, where 600 civilians had sought sanctuary and safety, and Caritas Jerusalem was providing humanitarian services, including medical and psychological care. Sadly, three were killed and at least ten injured, two of whom critically. This was just one of the latest merciless attacks on the civilian population of Gaza and those who are trying to help them and bring humanitarian relief.

May those who were killed rest in peace, and may their families and their community find consolation in their grief.

Today in Gaza, Caritas Internationalis sees a horrific situation in which:

• 50 hostages are still held by Hamas;
• The whole Gaza Strip is being bombed and razed to the ground to clear the strip and make it unhabitable;
• Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are being slaughtered: the official numbers are only those who have been certified dead at health facilities and we know many, many more have been killed;
• People are being starved to the point of famine;
• Children are bombed while waiting for therapeutic nutrition and vaccines;
• People are shot by the dozens daily while queuing for water and food: >750 killed, >5,000 injured;
• Food, water and other basic necessities are systematically blocked and withheld at anything other than tokenistic levels;
• Medical facilities are destroyed and overwhelmed, killing patients and medical staff, with diarrhoea and meningitis rife, not to mention war wounded;
• Hundreds of aid workers and journalists have been killed in the line of duty;
• The Israeli Government is planning to forcibly evict the entire population of almost 2 million people of Gaza to a non-existent camp in Rafah, which Ehud Olmert, Former Prime Minister of Israel, has described as a “concentration camp” and “part of an ethnic cleansing”;
• Violence and dispossession continue growing in the West Bank committed by the illegal presence of settlers in connivance with Israeli security forces;
• Violence against worship places, hospitals, schools, and displacement camps that serve as shelter and protection for civilians must stop.

Our judgment:

In the light of the Spirit that guides us, Caritas Internationalis abhors all these acts and omissions in the strongest terms. They represent a blatant disregard for the values and fundamental principles of humanity and clearly violate International Law, International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, as well as many provisions of specific UN Conventions, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Any military support or involvement by third States or private entities to the State of Israel or anything which aids or abets them in their persecution of the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, may amount to complicity in the horrors that are being perpetrated in Palestine today.

Our call to action:

Caritas Internationalis joins Pope Leo XIV in “call[ing] for an immediate halt to the barbarism of the war and for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.” We also join Pope Leo XIV in “renewing [his] appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and to respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force and the forced displacement of the population.

For the love of the God of Abraham and in the name of humanity, Caritas Internationalis, as the humanitarian arm of the Catholic Church, demands:

1. The Israeli Government immediately stop its atrocities and persecution of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
2. Immediate, permanent ceasefire to end the unbearable loss of life and human suffering.
3. Immediate release of all Israeli hostages and all Palestinians held under arbitrary detention.
4. Immediate, safe, large-scale humanitarian access for independent, professional humanitarian organisations.
5. To guarantee the protection of all civilians, with a particular focus on children, women and families.
6. The end of the State of Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory, in accordance with the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of July 19^th
7. All other countries to stop the military support to the state of Israel or any other support that aids or abets it in these atrocities.

The current situation goes beyond any legal and moral boundaries. It is not only for the very survival of Palestinians’ lives and dignity that we make these demands, but also out of friendship, respect and concern for the honour and dignity of Jews worldwide. We want peace. We must stop the seeds of hatred being sown in the hearts of young Palestinians and Israelis, and elsewhere in the region. These will fuel wars in the Middle East for decades to come. We must break the cycles of hatred, violence and international indifference to immense human suffering. Silence in the face of this situation is complicity.

Meanwhile, Caritas Jerusalem, with Caritas Internationalis, all our Members worldwide and the whole humanitarian community is ready to respond to the horrific humanitarian conditions in Gaza immediately and at scale as soon as safe access is granted. We proved during the ceasefire we could do this and we must be allowed to do it again.

We always try to reach Gaza in all possible ways . . . certainly we will never leave them alone.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa

History will not forgive this barbarism and complicity. Be on the right side of History.

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