Episcopal Presiding Bishop Calls for Aid and Peace for Gaza and West Bank Christians

Archbishop Hosam Naoum of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East addressed the Church of England’s annual Synod in York about the situation in Gaza and the Holy Land. According to a letter from Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe of The Episcopal Church, Naoum described humanitarian conditions created by the war in Gaza, including continued bombing of hospitals, a severe shortage of medical supplies, and a food distribution system that he likened to the dystopian novel “The Hunger Games.”

In his address, Naoum asked for help from the wider Christian community. He said that where the church is wounded and constrained, it needs the wider body of Christ to help it continue its ministry in brutal and damaging times.

Rowe wrote that Episcopalians could respond by standing with Christians in the Holy Land as they continue their ministry of presence and resilience. He said The Episcopal Church joins Naoum’s call for the Israeli military to end the bombing of hospitals and the siege of Gaza, for humanitarian aid to be restored to the people of Gaza under United Nations supervision, and for Israel and Hamas to release all people unjustly detained and the hostages.

Rowe also called for Israel to end its targeting of civilians in Gaza. He expressed particular grief over the death of Dr. Ahmad Attallah Qandil, a surgeon at the Diocese of Jerusalem’s Al Ahli Hospital, whom the letter says was killed by a drone strike as he left the hospital after his shift the previous Friday. Rowe described him as one of hundreds of medical workers who have been arrested, detained, or killed in Gaza during the war. Speaking up for those who cannot protect themselves is a duty the letter places on the church, as Proverbs 31:8-9 does.

The letter addressed conditions in the West Bank as well. Rowe said The Episcopal Church joins the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches of Jerusalem in expressing grief and outrage at a recent attack on Taybeh, which he described as the last all-Christian village in the West Bank. According to the letter, extremist Israeli settlers destroyed crops and olive groves, damaged historic buildings and water systems, and attempted to burn the village’s ancient Byzantine cemetery and its fifth-century Church of St. George.

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