The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee, meeting in Abuja, Nigeria in November, released a statement adding its voice to the global calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and the opening of humanitarian corridors in Palestine and Israel.

“We yearn for peace and for justice, for an end to the seemingly endless cycle of violence and suffering, and for its fundamental root causes to be addressed,” reads the statement. “We lament the abject failure of the international community and of political leaders in the region who did not persist in the search for a sustainable peace founded on justice and mutual respect for the equal human dignity and rights of all, and who kept the cycle of violence turning.”

The WCC governing body also lifted before God the suffering and traumatized people in the land of Jesus Christ’s birth. “We highlight the lifelong and potentially intergenerational consequences of the terrible trauma that children in both Palestine and Israel are experiencing,” the text reads. “We pray for peace in the land, a sustainable and just peace founded at last on recognition and respect for the God-given human dignity and equal human rights of all people – Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike – rather than a false ‘peace’ imposed by occupation and force of arms which cannot and should not be sustained.”

Mean while the Lutheran World Fellowship (LWF) said on November 9 that basic medical supplies had run out for hospital patients in Gaza. “There are no antibiotics, nothing to treat burns and other injuries. We want this conflict to end because it is hurting innocent civilians. We don’t know how many people are buried under the rubble and we cannot get supplies into Gaza to treat the victims,” said the manager of a project, set up by the Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) to provide life-saving cancer diagnoses and treatment for people inside Gaza.

The hospital, operated by LWF and based in East Jerusalem, was trying to find ways of getting cancer drugs and other specialist supplies into Gaza for patients whose lives depend upon them.

As the conflict escalated, LWF added its voice to all those condemning the widespread destruction and loss of life, demanding “an immediate ceasefire and the establishment of humanitarian corridors” to get aid to those most in need. A November 6 statement also called for “the immediate and safe release of all hostages detained by Hamas.” It says “both Israel and Hamas have conducted this armed conflict in a manner inconsistent with the rules of war.”

About a hundred patients and their companions from Gaza, who were receiving treatment at AVH in Jerusalem when the conflict broke out, are now stranded and living in three nearby hotels.

(WCC/LWF)