THE Middle East is suffering from a “humanitarian catastrophe that’s getting worse by the day, in some places by the hour”, Tearfund’s director for the region, Safa Hijazeen, has said.
He was commenting as the war between Israel and Hamas passed into its second year, and Israel expanded its ground invasion of southern Lebanon in the escalating conflict with Hezbollah.
On Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry reported that 36 people had been killed, and 150 injured, in Israeli attacks over the previous 24 hours.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said that 50 members of Hezbollah had been killed in Monday’s air strikes, and that the group, which the UK designates as a terrorist organisation, had injured 12 people in the Israeli city of Haifa after the latest round of rocket fire.
Alongside the IDF’s increased activity in southern Lebanon, air strikes continue in Gaza. On Sunday the Hamas-run health ministry said that 26 people had been killed in air strikes on a mosque and school in Deir al-Balah, in the centre of Gaza.
Officials said that the buildings were sheltering displaced Palestinians; the IDF said that they were targeting Hamas militants operating within the sites.
In the past year, more than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials.
Lebanon’s health ministry says that more than 2000 people have been killed, including 127 children and 261 women, in Israeli air strikes. More than one million people are thought to have been displaced by the fighting.
The conflict with Hezbollah has escalated in recent weeks, and, on Monday of last week, the IDF announced that it had launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah “infrastructure”.
On Tuesday, the IDF announced that a fourth division of troops had joined the offensive.
The previous day, it was reported that the IDF was stationed close to an outpost of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which is currently staffed by Irish troops.
The conduct of the IDF was “outrageous”, the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, said. A spokesperson for the UNIFIL said that the situation was “concerning”.
In a post on the messaging app Telegram, Hezbollah accused the IDF of using the Irish troops as “human shields”, and said that its own fighters had been instructed to hold their fire, to “protect the lives of UNIFIL soldiers”.
THE escalation has prompted renewed calls by church and charity leaders for a ceasefire and more humanitarian aid.
Tearfund, relaunched its Middle Eastern emergency appeal last week, spoke of the “devastating humanitarian need” across Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank — all areas where the charity is operating.
On Monday, Mr Hijazeen told the Church Times: “Any time there’s a conflict, we are motivated, obliged, and feel a huge responsibility to respond.”
In Gaza, Tearfund works with international health partners to provide medication for maternal- and child-health clinics. “There’s big needs across the board, but the biggest are for women and children,” Mr Hijazeen said. “We see on the news the level of destruction of infrastructure, but we forget the human suffering on the ground, for example for people with chronic diseases.”
Research released by Christian Aid on Monday showed another aspect of hardship which often goes unreported: the inflation of food prices because of the war. A kilogramme of onions now costs £80 in Gaza City, compared with 20p this time last year.
Christian Aid’s head of policy and advocacy for the Middle East, William Bell, said: “The suffering of Palestinian children and their mothers in Gaza knows no bounds. Starvation must never be used as a weapon of war, yet we have Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich suggesting it might be ‘justified and moral’.”
In a speech in August, Mr Smotrich said that Israel had to continue to allow aid to reach Gaza, because “Nobody will let us cause two million civilians to die of hunger, even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned.”
Mr Smotrich later said that his comments had been misunderstood. Ninety-seven Israeli hostages remain unaccounted for in Gaza.
In the West Bank and Lebanon, much of Tearfund’s work is carried out in partnership with churches there. Because of the large-scale displacement of people by the fighting in southern Lebanon, churches had become places of refuge for people of all religions, Mr Hijazeen said — but he emphasised that this was not a novel situation. “The Church has existed in the Middle East for 2000 years. It is an essential part of the fabric of society. . . Churches are historically, and will continue to be, a place of refuge.”
The part played by Tearfund, he said, was to give churches “vital support so that they can serve their people”.
In the West Bank, Tearfund works with the Anglican Alliance and the diocese of Jerusalem to support hospitals and schools.
“The challenges of the West Bank revolve around the loss of income for many families,” Mr Hijazeen said. More than 40 per cent of employment in the West Bank is thought to have been lost since last year, mostly owing to the cancellation of travel permits of Palestinians who used to work across the border, as Israel has tightened its restrictions on the occupied territories.
On Sunday, the Archbishop in Jerusalem, Dr Hosam Naoum, published a pastoral letter for Harvest Sunday. “It is often difficult for us to give thanks during crises, hardships, and challenging times.
“However, our hope is alive in Jesus Christ. He comforts us and strengthens us, allowing us to overcome adversities and challenges. In this way, he enhances our pastoral presence and resilience,” he wrote.
His letter concludes: “We are all going through difficult and painful times. But we do not lose hope for a better life and a better world.”
Asked how Tearfund staff and other aid workers continued their work despite the seeming intractability of the problems, Mr Hijazeen acknowledged their fortitude, and thanked supporters for their generosity.
“Prayer is a vital thing,” he said, and he encouraged supporters to engage with and raise awareness about the “catastrophe that’s unfolding before our very eyes”.
Last Friday, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Revd Professor Jerry Pillay, said: “We are extremely concerned by what is happening in Gaza and now extended to Lebanon.”
He was speaking at an online meeting of church leaders, alongside the secretary-general of the Middle East Council of Churches, Dr Michel Abs, who lives in Lebanon.
“The future is gloomy, and a huge uncertainty covers the country,” Dr Abs said, referring to a “generalised anxiety” afflicting Lebanese people after an escalation in Israeli air strikes on the country since 23 September.
Professor Pillay said: “We heard the painful stories of displaced and homeless people in Lebanon, the collective measures of people’s anxieties, destruction of properties, the spread of diseases, and the disruption and closure of educational institutions.”
