Conflict in the Middle East

As the Israel-Hamas war enters its fourth month, ending hostilities “all around” to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip has become critical, the head of a U.S.-based Catholic aid agency told OSV News.

Ten children from Gaza in need of medical attention arrived in Rome on a military plane late Jan. 29, the first group of young patients who will receive treatment in Italy thanks to the lobbying of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land and negotiations involving the governments of Italy, Israel, Palestine and Egypt.

The situation in the Gaza Strip is “extremely catastrophic,” and people are dying not only from violence but from preventable illnesses, said the CEO of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Two U.S. prelates are urging an “immediate and total” ceasefire in the war that has convulsed the Gaza Strip for more than 100 days, while condemning Hamas and urging the release of Israeli hostages taken by the Palestinian militants.

As the world marked 100 days since the Hamas militants attacks that unleashed hell in the Holy Land, images of the children from Holy Family Parish — the only Catholic parish in the Gaza Strip — dressed in white albs to receive the sacrament were a stark and welcome contrast in a land that has had little reason to smile since Oct. 7.