Today, October 7, 2024, marks the passage of a year of horrors in Gaza. As Pope Francis noted last week, this annus horribilis has been “marked by increasing suffering, with destructive military actions continuing to strike the Palestinian people.”
A year ago, Hamas killed over 1,000 Israelis and took over 200 of them hostage. Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada denounced the outrage unequivocally.
Israel’s retaliation was swift and has been brutal and relentlessness. By January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was noting it had “resulted, inter alia, in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries and the destruction of homes, schools, medical facilities and other vital infrastructure, as well as displacement on a massive scale.”
A year of creating hope
Although the situation has since worsened significantly, our partners have not been deterred from providing lifesaving food, shelter, medical services and psychosocial support to the besieged, bereaved and bereft people of Gaza.
Caritas Jerusalem affirmed, “We remain committed to our mission of peace and hope.” Explaining the source of their optimism, they added, “Like the disciples who witnessed Christ’s power over the storm, we hold onto faith, believing that peace can prevail even in the darkest of times.”
Here’s a look at how Caritas Jerusalem has kept hope alive over the past year:
More than year in the making
The present conflict, though inflamed by a paroxysm of violence a year ago, goes back much further. To better understand its context and history and how we and our partners are responding, we invite you to sign up for our Webinar on Palestine, which will be held at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, October 19.
Jesuit scholar Fr. David Neuhaus will trace the history and antecedents of the conflict. Anton Asfar, the secretary general of Caritas Jerusalem, will outline the current situation. International programs coordinator Nagui Demian will explain how Canadians’ contributions are enabling our partners’ response. Hélène Gobeil, our director of communications and campaigns, will summarize our advocacy work.
A year of deadly conflict
Our partners’ efforts are especially commendable given the sombre circumstances.
At least 41,802 people were killed and 96,844 were injured over the past year in Gaza. The actual numbers may be much higher. In July 2024, experts using robust epidemiological methods pegged the projected death toll at 186,000. Last week, a group of American doctors, nurses and midwives writing to President Biden surmised that 5.4 per cent of Gaza’s population may have been killed.
These gross totals hide many horrors. Six months ago, over 2 per cent of Gaza’s children had been killed or injured. Last month, Gaza’s health ministry released the names of 34,000 of those killed until August 2024. The first 14 pages of the 649-page list featured babies under a year old and the first adult did not appear until the 215th page. Now, Oxfam reports that Israel has killed more women and children in Gaza this year than have been killed in any one-year period in any conflict in the past two decades.
Among the fallen are over 300 aid workers, including our Caritas Jerusalem colleagues Viola Al ‘Amash and Issam Abedrabbo; 1,151 healthcare workers, including at least three doctors who died while in custody; and over 400 teachers.
Nor has the carnage been limited to Gaza. Over the past year, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 695 Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel has also killed 1,699 and injured 9,781 people in Lebanon and conducted deadly airstrikes on Syria, Iran and Iraq. One of its recent strikes on Yemen was characterized by Human Rights Watch as a possible war crime.
A year of devastation and deprivation
Israel’s aggressions have also exacted a heavy toll on Gaza’s infrastructure and food security.
In what UN experts have deemed intentional “scholasticide,” Israeli bombardments have directly hit, damaged or likely damaged 94.7 per cent of Gaza’s schools.
Over 68 per cent of the road network has been damaged or destroyed, as have over 63 per cent of all buildings. This has produced 14 times more debris than the combined total generated by all other conflicts since 2008.
More than 500 Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities have left not a single intact hospital in Gaza. With fewer than half the hospitals and primary health centres remaining partially functional, the UN is hearing of home amputations with kitchen knives and makeshift hospitals in parking lots.
The Food and Agriculture Organization reports that over two thirds of croplands have been damaged; nearly 95 per cent of the cattle have died; only 1 per cent of the heads of poultry remain alive; and most of the fishing boats in the Port of Gaza have been destroyed. The agency warns, “The risk of famine persists with all 2.1 million residents still in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance as humanitarian access remains restricted.”
To make matters worse, over 1.4 million people did not receive food rations last month, even as 100,000 tons of food remained undeliverable because of blockades or security concerns.
A year of misrepresentation and intimidation
To add insult to injury, many Western media outlets have minimized or misrepresented the suffering of the people of Gaza.
For instance, casualty numbers are often reported with the caveat that they are from the “Hamas-run health ministry,” insinuating that they are ipso facto unreliable. Such phrasing is never applied to numbers from any other government. This despite experts having long concluded that there is no evidence of the Gaza health ministry’s mortality numbers being inflated and UN agencies relying on them routinely.
It has been noted that the media’s linguistic choices, especially the use of the passive voice, have served to diminish the distress of Palestinians and absolve aggressors of blameworthy agency. More egregiously, some of the world’s leading media outlets have been accused by insiders of harbouring biases and double standards and violating journalistic principles in their coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Meanwhile, pro-Palestine protestors on campuses face what UN special rapporteur Gina Romero has called a “widespread hostile environment.” In her assessment, “The brutal repression of the university-based protest movement is posing a profound threat to democratic systems and institutions….” In parts of Canada, this repression has been disturbingly draconian.
A year of keeping up the advocacy
Over the past year, we have been inspired in our advocacy by Pope Francis’s early appeal to believers “to take just one side in this conflict: that of peace.” We are also guided by his consistent appeals to the international community, reiterated as recently as yesterday, to end the cycle of violence with a ceasefire and for the repatriation of hostages. Rooted in Catholic Social Teaching, our advocacy also conforms to the principles of the proportionality of legitimate defence and of the duty to protect the innocent that are set out in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
The cause in Canada has not been an easy one. Canada has been lukewarm to the ongoing ICJ case on the Gaza issue. Deplorably, Canada also abstained from voting on last month’s overwhelmingly supported UN General Assembly resolution that called for an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation of the Palestinian Territories within a year.
Yet, there has been some success. In March 2024, Parliament adopted a motion calling the government to cease arms exports to Israel. Minister Joly has since announced the suspension of some arms shipments, but the matter bears clarification. This moderate victory and our partners’ repeated appeals for global solidarity prompt us to reaffirm our principled advocacy stance.
We call on the Government of Canada to:
- Use all moral, diplomatic, political and economic means to bring about an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon and the safe return of all Israeli hostages and illegally detained Palestinians.
- Compel Israel to allow the unhindered and safe circulation of humanitarian aid and aid workers across Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.
- Clearly and publicly commit to a comprehensive embargo on all Canadian supply of arms, weapons systems, weapon components and military and paramilitary technology to Israel, including via other countries.
- Clearly and publicly commit to supporting all International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice proceedings currently underway and to enforcing the orders and decisions of these courts.
- Support UN resolutions that denounce or seek to constrain Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian Territories and persecution of the Palestinian people.
- Work toward an internationally mediated process to secure a just and lasting peace for the people of Palestine and Israel.
- Be willing to escalate diplomatic action if prevailing lines of action continue failing to alter Israel’s behaviour.
The Christian response and how you can help
How to mark this solemn day and address this ongoing tragedy?
Pope Francis has called for the observance of a day of fasting and prayer. His Eminence Pierbattista Cardinal Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, has stressed the importance of keeping “our hearts free from all forms of fear and anger”
One of the cardinal’s predecessors, His Beatitude Michel Sabbah, who was the first native Palestinian Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, offers a powerful Christian vision for understanding and resolving this conflict. His group, the Christian Reflection from Jerusalem, has just published a document entitled Keeping hope alive.
Asserting that peace will only come “when the tragedy of the Palestinian people is brought to an end,” the document exhorts Christians to “stand alongside all those, Muslims, Jews, and Christians, who seek to put an end to death and destruction,” reminding them that faith “motivates us to speak the truth and oppose injustice.”
We therefore invite you talk about this issue to your family and friends. Ask your Member of Parliament to support our advocacy demands. Download our sample letter to get started.
And finally, please consider giving generously to support our partners’ lifesaving work, which creates hope in the Holy Land.
