Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, considers that the agreement reached by Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire “was absolutely necessary” and urges to address the needs in food, health and schooling.
In a first assessment offered to Vatican Newsthe cardinal noted that in the Holy Land “people are happy, because the war has done a lot of damage to everyone’s lives” even though “the situation remains very fragile.”
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“The hope is that this is the first step and that a context will now open that provides new perspectives and resolves the conflict through negotiation. Real peace, unfortunately, will take longer: the end of the war is not the end of the conflict,” he added.
The cardinal expressed the need to “do everything possible to maintain” the truce, which has been possible now “because perhaps the human and international political conditions have matured,” despite the fact that it has been proposed in the same terms as months ago. .
“The important thing at this moment is to turn the page, immediately, and begin to deal, above all, with the very serious humanitarian situation in Gaza,” he considered, since in his opinion “from the humanitarian point of view, it should be easier to provide what is necessary to the life of the population, which depends 100% on foreign aid.”
Beyond the food crisis, the cardinal stressed the need to “face the other two great urgencies of the population” which are schooling and healthcare, including the Christian community.
“I am sure that, with the help of numerous international organizations, we will be able to create the necessary coordination to begin to solve the humanitarian problem, which will take a long time,” he predicted.
The Holy Family parish in Gaza will also be involved in this task, with which Cardinal Pizzaballa is in permanent contact: “The people of our community in Gaza are very happy, of course, they still can’t believe it! But the idea of there being a ceasefire and turning the page gives a feeling of liberation right now.”
Nicholas de Cardenas
Born in 1980, I am a Spanish husband and father and journalist with more than 20 years of experience in print and digital media, specializing in sociopolitical and religious information. I have worked for more than 10 years in defense of human rights and have accreditations in Journalism and Comprehensive Communication. Since July 2022, I have been a correspondent for ACI Prensa and EWTN Noticias in Spain, covering international events of the Catholic Church.