ASIA/HOLY LAND - Time wasted between betrayed promises of peace and massacres of innocents

Tuesday, 20 May 2025 middle east wars children

photo UNRWA

HOLY LAND

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by Father Ibrahim Faltas, ofm*

Jerusalem (Agenzia Fides) - "In Gaza, children, families, and the surviving elderly are reduced to starvation." With these words, Pope Leo XIV recalled the suffering in Gaza during Sunday's Regina Caeli in St. Peter's Square, packed with faithful and in the presence of Heads of State, government leaders, and representatives of numerous countries around the world.

Earlier, in his homily, the Holy Father had emphasized that love and unity are the starting point of the mission entrusted by Jesus to Peter. Leo XIV shows us the way: the defense of life, both physical and spiritual, is born from love and unity.

In the Holy Land, life remains suspended between betrayed promises of peace and the certainty of death. It is not unforeseeable events or natural disasters that cause this suffering, but rather unscrupulous human hands and minds.
In Gaza, 950 children have died in the last month alone. Since the beginning of the war, the death toll has risen to more than 20,000. It is estimated that one million children lack food, medical care, and education.

The suffering of the children of the Holy Land moves and saddens the Holy Father, as well as all those who value the life and future of humanity. All the children of this land suffer: Palestinians, Israelis, Lebanese, Syrians, Muslims, Christians, Jews. All are marked by profound physical and moral traumas. The pain of childhood is profound, it leaves deep scars. I know children in the Holy Land who can no longer smile, play, or even eat, because they suffer for their peers in Gaza.
Those who have suffered hunger will not forget it: the lack of food leaves a wound of humiliation that persists even when they have food. It will also take a long time to heal the physical wounds and restore serenity to those who have suffered.

While children suffer, weapons continue to kill, aid fails to cross the border, and no one can find a solution to stop the violence. The Holy Father suffers for Gaza and reaffirms that love and unity are the missionary commitment of the People of God. The powerful of the Earth have heard, directly, his firm and simple, humble and determined message: love for humanity, unity in the search for peace.
Let us not waste time, so as not to lose the possibility of saving lives and the possibility of giving hope to lives. Time is precious. Whoever does not stop violence wastes time without love. (Agenzia Fides, 20/5/2025)

*Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land