DISPLACEMENT from Gaza City would be “nothing less than a death sentence” for people sheltering in the Christian compounds there, the Greek Orthodox and Latin Patriarchs of Jerusalem have said.
In a statement on Tuesday of last week, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Theophilos III of Jerusalem, and the Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, warned that the mass displacement of Gazans, in anticipation of a ground invasion, would spell disaster for members of their community.
Both churches shelter vulnerable people, including the elderly, women and children, many of whom, the statement said, are “weakened and malnourished due to the hardships of the last month”.
Many disabled people live in the RC Holy Family compound, where they are cared for by nuns, the statement said.
“Leaving Gaza City and trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence,” the Patriarchs said; for this reason the clergy and nuns had decided to stay in Gaza City, regardless of injunctions to evacuate.
After the Israeli Government’s announcement of its intention to invade Gaza City (News, 15 August), tens of thousands of reservists have been called up by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
This week, it was reported that Israeli forces were already occupying the outskirts of the city. Despite evacuation orders, almost a million people remain in Gaza City. In June, the United Nations estimated that 90 per cent of Gaza’s population had been displaced during the war, and many had been forced to move multiple times.
On Tuesday, local health authorities reported that a further 95 people had been killed in Israeli air strikes, bringing the overall death toll of the war to more than 63,000. Israel disputes these figures; some international studies have concluded that the true number could be around 40 per cent higher.
A group of academics declared this week that Israel is committing genocide in the territory. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), which has 500 members from around the world, published a resolution in which they said that Israel’s action met the definition for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
The resolution, which was agreed in a vote in which more than one quarter of IAGS members took part, cited as evidence Israeli statements as well as actions. The resolution included a statement made by a senior Israeli military official after the Haman attacks in October 2023 that “human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.”