Pray for peace
A prayer seeking God's help for the situation in the Middle East.
As the Israeli President arrives at Downing Street on Wednesday evening, the Prime Minister Keir Starmer must take the opportunity to do more on the devastation in Gaza and urge the Israeli government to support diplomatic efforts towards a solution.
CAFOD welcomes Keir Starmer’s condemnation of the Israeli attack on Qatar which jeopardises already fragile ceasefire talks and risks regional escalation.
The Israeli military has ordered Gaza City residents to evacuate, part of a planned takeover of the territory’s largest urban centre - approved by the security cabinet last month.
On Tuesday, our partners at the Catholic church inside Gaza City told us they had decided to remain where they were. It is heartbreaking to watch our partners and the communities they serve forced into yet more suffering. We are deeply concerned.
Over 600 people are sheltering, exhausted, inside the Holy Family church compound. These are people whose homes have been damaged, and livelihoods destroyed. Vulnerable, elderly, hungry people, many with disabilities, are unable to leave but frightened to stay.
Elizabeth Funnell, CAFOD’s Middle East Programme representative, said:
“People we speak to in Gaza tell us they are not moving, they are waiting, they don’t know what to do. It is likely that there are up to a million people still in Gaza City, many of whom have been displaced multiple times and who are enduring deepening levels of hunger. The UN is warning that there is no safe way to evacuate people.
“The people sheltering in the Holy Family Church are already exhausted by nearly two years of violence, and yet they have no safe place to go. The international community must act urgently to allow aid in, protect civilians, and bring a lasting ceasefire. The people of Gaza cannot endure any more delay.”
CAFOD is urgently calling on the entire international community to use every lever it can to end this onslaught. Aid must be allowed into Gaza immediately and at scale. A lasting and permanent ceasefire is desperately needed. The people of Gaza have suffered long enough, and the world cannot stand by anymore.
Notes to editors
For more information or interview requests, please contact:
Rosalind Mayfield, CAFOD Media Officer
Melissa Nethersole, CAFOD Media Officer
CAFOD’s out-of-hours media line
CAFOD is the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and part of Caritas Internationalis, working with communities across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America to fight poverty and injustice, including those worst hit by climate change. The agency works with people in need, regardless of race, gender, religion or nationality.
Donate to the Gaza Crisis Appeal
Millions of people have fled their homes in search of safety. They urgently need shelter, food and basic supplies.