Death in the Gaza Strip

Lidia Dudkiewicz

The Saturday of 27 December 2008 was the bloodiest day in the history of the Israeli-Palestine conflict for the last 60 years. There was a real massacre. Many civilians, including children, were killed in Israel’s airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in the Palestinian Authority. Tel Aviv continues its bombing in the Gaza Strip. Israel explains that it is the response to the rocket attack of Hamas and ensures that its target is only the places connected with this organisation. In turn, the representatives of Hamas claim that the Israeli missiles hit public places and at the same time they announce revenge. The Egyptians who fear Hamas do not want the Palestinians, escaping the attacks and trying to force the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, to enter their territory. The Holy Father Benedict XVI appealed to stop the conflict at once, saying during the prayer of Angelus on 28 December 2008, ‘the Holy Land, which during the days of Christmas has been at the centre of the thought and affection of the faithful in every part of the world, is once again being devastated by an outbreak of unprecedented violence. I implore an end to that violence, which is to be condemned in all its forms and a restoration of the truce in the Gaza Strip.’ Commenting on the Israeli attacks on the Palestinian territory the Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi explains, ‘'Hamas is a prisoner of the logic of hatred. Israel (is the prisoner) of a logic that force is the best response to hatred.’ In her official statement Condoleezza Rice said that the United States’ policy would remain unchanged and that Hamas was responsible for breaking the truce and flaring up violence in the Gaza Strip. The American Christians try to convince Barack Obama to consider restoration of the truce between Israel and Palestine as one of the priorities of the first year of his presidency. The organisation Churches for the Middle East Peace, embracing Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox and evangelical Christians in the U.S.A, launched such an appeal. The U.S.A. condemns Hamas whereas the EU countries criticize the severe reaction of the Israeli government and the Arab world accuses Israel of barbarian crime. The European Union and the United Nations appeal to both parties of the conflict to put an end to the attacks. Below we publish an interview concerning the bloody Christmas in the Holy Land in the year 2002. Unfortunately, six years later, in December 2008, the Israeli bombs fell on the Palestinians and the conflict in the Holy Land has intensified again, causing fear and despair and even death of hundreds of people. The Gaza Strip is a zone of death and tears.

"Niedziela" 2/2009

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl