Bp. Zaidan urges Israel to refrain from targeting places of refuge
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military July 10 called for all Palestinians to leave Gaza City and head south, as the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace urged civilians not be targeted and “remain outside the sphere of combat.”
Dozens of civilians have been killed in recent days in multiple Israeli military attacks on facilities where people shelter, like schools. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are crammed into squalid tent camps in central and southern Gaza.
In a statement released July 10, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace expressed his solidarity with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in condemning the targeting of civilians and expressed grave concern over news of the attack on the Catholic school in Gaza, “a place of refuge for hundreds of civilians.”
“I urge in strongest terms that civilians remain outside the sphere of combat, while also praying for peace and an immediate end to hostilities,” said Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the St. Louis-based Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon.
The stepped-up Israel military activity came as U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators met with Israeli officials in the Qatari capital, Doha, for talks seeking a long-elusive cease-fire deal with Gaza’s Hamas militant group in exchange for the release of dozens of Israeli hostages it is holding, The Associated Press reported.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued a strong condemnation after the Israeli military targeted a Catholic school in Gaza that killed four people July 6, including a senior Hamas official.
In a statement published July 7, the patriarchate said it was monitoring reports of a strike on Holy Family School, which “has, since the beginning of the war, been a place of refuge for hundreds of civilians.”
“The Latin Patriarchate condemns, in the strongest terms, the targeting of civilians or any belligerent actions that fall short of ensuring that civilians remain outside the combat scene,” the statement read.
The patriarchate called for a cease-fire agreement “that would put an immediate end to the horrifying bloodbath and humanitarian catastrophe in the region.”
In Gaza City, large areas have been flattened by previous Israeli assaults. The United Nations said about 300,000 Palestinians have remained in the hard-hit north, with the bulk of those said to be in Gaza City.
Holy Family Parish and School shelter the remaining community of Catholics in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli bombardment July 10 hit four houses in Deir al-Balah and the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp, killing 20 Palestinians.
Among the dead were six children and three women, according to officials at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the casualties were taken. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies.
