As the war continues in Gaza and the violence escalates in the West Bank, it has never been more important for people of faith to advocate for a ceasefire, for increased humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and for the withholding of arms to Israel. Despite clear evidence of human rights violations and mass civilian casualties caused by Israeli strikes using US-made weapons, the administration announced last week that it would resume shipping 500-pound bombs to Israel.
On July 13 an Israeli strike on a designated humanitarian zone killed ninety Palestinians and injured 300. Israeli military attacks have increased even on schools and hospitals, with strikes on the Holy Family School (associated with the Latin Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem). This site had become a place of refuge for many civilians. The closure last week of al-Ahli Arab Hospital (of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem) by the Israel Defense Forces forced the hospital to stop treatments and operations and hastily evacuate the sick and wounded. While the hospital was able to reopen four days later, many patients have not been able to return. Churches for Middle East Peace issued a statement strongly decrying these actions, stating " The closure of the hospital, the evacuation, and the declaration of the area as a red zone, in addition to the firing upon the ambulance, are all unacceptable violations of humanitarian international law.”
On July 9th, UN experts reported that famine had spread throughout Gaza with children being its first victim. The statement condemned "Israel's intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people". Save the Children recently issued a report on the children missing in Gaza stating that, “over 20,000 children are currently missing… Thousands are presumed dead beneath the rubble. Others have been harmed beyond recognition by explosives, buried in unmarked or mass graves, or have been detained or abducted.” The International Criminal Court prosecutor has requested arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant for war crimes including “intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population.”
US government officials who have resigned from the administration over its policy on Gaza recently issued a statement saying that “America’s diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to, Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza.”
And in the West Bank, since the October 7th attack, Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers have killed 528 Palestinians, 133 of them children. UN human rights officials have warned that the situation is deteriorating dramatically as Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades.
It has never been more urgent for the U.S. government to adhere to international humanitarian law and its own laws that prohibit assisting the government of any country that engages in a consistent pattern of human rights violations or that uses U.S. weapons against civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Urge the Biden administration to withhold military aid to Israel, increase humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and increase efforts for a ceasefire.
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