I live in the Armenian quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Each day I walk to work at Caritas Jerusalem, where I am fundraising and compliance manager, crossing the Jewish quarter and the Christian quarter. And every day I see suspicion and tension all around.
Often I see more military and policemen than civilians in the streets. Everything has stopped, basically, in Jerusalem and the West Bank, where the war has put more than 350,000 people out of work. Palestinians with permits to work in Israel have had them revoked.
?There is violence in the West Bank, which is gaining less attention, but Gaza is the worst. I’ve been working for Caritas since 2011, and have had the misfortune of witnessing four wars during my time, running aid projects and emergency appeals. I thought I had seen it all, but no one could imagine the destruction and loss of life happening now. It’s a catastrophe, and it’s going on and on, with civilians killed on a daily, if not hourly, basis.
Caritas Jerusalem is concentrating, of course, on Gaza, where the need is greatest. After the war started, with the October 7 attacks into Israel, we launched a rapid response to provide people with basic needs and unconditional cash transfers, primary health care and psychosocial aid, especially to women and children.
?Previously we worked mainly in northern Gaza, but we are suffering displacement with the rest of the population. Moving around is difficult, because fuel is short, and it’s also dangerous, but we have ended up working on the southern border with Egypt for the first time.
We have eight teams in Rafah, each consisting of a doctor, a nurse, a psychosocial worker, and a lab technician, providing primary health care. People are getting to know us, but what will happen now, with fighting threatening to engulf the area, is completely uncertain.
Children are entertained in the compound of the Latin Church, Gaza City April 2024. Credit Caritas Jerusalem.
Further north, we are still operating amidst the devastation. Our health centre is in Gaza City, but we cannot use it, because it has been damaged in the conflict. Instead we are using the compounds of the Latin and Orthodox Christian communities, helping the many people sheltering there, particularly the elderly and disabled, who were unable to escape. Families are sheltering at the UNRWA school close by, and they also come and benefit from our services. We have been working in the area since the 1990s, so people know us and trust us. We are reaching people that are left behind, not all of them Christian by any means. This is where Caritas is having the most impact, by being the voice of the voiceless.
But nowhere is safe in Gaza. What we’re doing is planting seeds of hope. Apart from psychosocial support and primary aid, we keep people’s dignity by giving them cash without conditions, so that they can get what they want. We listen to them. We try always to answer their questions, answer their needs.
Of course, Caritas is a small organisation. What we do is a drop in the ocean. We’re not pretending to cover all the needs, and we will never be able to cover all the needs. This needs government intervention on a massive scale. But we are doing all we can.?It’s not always just about money; it’s the way you give, the ways you support people.
Primary healthcare in Gaza. Credit Caritas Jerusalem.
Since the beginning of the war we have been calling for an immediate ceasefire, the opening of humanitarian access, protection of the civilian population and the release of the kidnapped people. This meaningless bloodshed has to stop.
Whatever co-existence or dialogue that there was between Palestinians and Israelis has come to a complete halt. It will take a long time to renew what it was before the war, and even that was far from normality. Healing will take years and years; the destruction caused is phenomenal.
People have to find it in their heart to forgive. They will never forget, but the long-term challenges would be to put some trust back, so that Palestinians and Israelis can live together. Because I always say Palestinians are not going anywhere. Israelis are not going anywhere.
Harout Bedrossian, Caritas Jerusalem
Caritas Jerusalem is supported in the UK by CAFOD
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