The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, spoke to reporters July 22 about his visit last week to Gaza City’s Holy Family Church. The church had been hit last week by the IDF, killing three and wounding more. One of the wounded was the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, who had received daily calls from the late Pope Francis.
Cardinal Pizzaballa said that humanitarian aid is a “matter of life and death.... Refusing it is not a delay, but a sentence. Every hour without food, water, medicine and shelter causes deep harm.” The situation is “morally unacceptable and unjustifiable.” Turning to world leaders, he said: “There can be no future based on captivity, displacement of Palestinians or revenge. It is time to end this nonsense, end the war and put the common good of people as the top priority,”
“You don’t see starvation,” says Pizzaballa. “You experience starvation.” He recounted people wandering around listlessly, children begging him for food, and wildly inflated prices for food. Pizzaballa stressed that, while “we are denouncing what is going on in Gaza,” they also “acknowledge the solidarity of many parts of Israeli society. We are not against Israel, we are not against the Jewish people.” Rather, we are against “the current policy in Gaza. Morally we cannot justify it.”
The Cardinal still refused to confirm that the artillery attack on the church was accidental, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had claimed. Instead, said the Cardinal, “Once again, we have no evidence. We still don’t know the exact details of what happened.” Then, of some note, he added: “But the facts remain, and this is not the first time that the Christian community has been targeted in Gaza.”
Apparently, the Cardinal had not forgotten that in December 2023, IDF snipers had shot and killed two women at the church. At the time, the IDF stated: “An initial review suggests that IDF troops, who were operating against Hamas terrorists in the area, operated against a threat that they identified in the area of the church. The IDF is conducting a thorough review of the incident.” That thorough review, as with so many others, has never surfaced. Cardinal Pizzaballa then pointedly commented about the situation: “The lack of information lends itself to many interpretations.”
In Gaza, there have been so many churches, mosques, hospitals and schools destroyed, all being war crimes. He continued: “The destruction I found in Gaza is enormous, much more extensive than the last time I entered the Strip. I was struck by the sight of a neighborhood that used to be very lively, around the nuns’ school, now transformed into a desolate, dead wasteland. Then there are tents everywhere, especially on the beaches, an incredible expanse, a sea of tents where people live with nothing.”
Cardinal Pizzaballa also visited Al-Ahli Hospital: “It is more of a field hospital than a real hospital. It is one of the few still partially functioning. Thousands of people arrive every day, often forced to lie on the ground because there is no room. What is really striking is seeing the mutilated children. Some do not speak, they cannot even communicate with their parents. A father told me that the child in front of me was his only remaining son. These things make an impression; it is one thing to hear about them, but quite another to see them with your own eyes. Going to Gaza, seeing the images, meeting the people, listening to their stories—every face has a specific story behind it—makes a big difference.”
