Caritas navigates huge challenges amid Holy Land crisis

By Linda Bordoni

Just back from a visit to the Holy Land, Alistair Dutton explained the primary purpose of his journey was to spend time with Caritas staff in Jerusalem and to visit Bethlehem and Ramallah in the West Bank where the organization operates “to see how they were doing personally and coping with the situation.”

In an interview with Vatican Radio, the Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis expressed concern for and closeness to all Caritas members amid the tension and crippling closures enforced since 7 October.

As well as the difficulties faced by aid workers because of the impossibility of reaching those most in need in blockaded Gaza, he told of their fear and apprehension for how their colleagues in the Strip are doing.

We spoke having just heard of the death of Issam Abedrabbo, a Caritas Jerusalem pharmacist who worked at the Gaza Health Centre and was killed with his two sons in a bombardment in what was deemed a secure location in Wadi Gaza.

“That's the second person that unfortunately we've lost,” Dutton said, recalling the death in October of Viola, another Caritas Jerusalem staff member who was killed alongside her husband and infant daughter under the relentless bombings.

“These are just two of the thousands of lives now that have been lost,” the Secretary General lamented, “A dreadful shame. Absolutely heartbreaking for their families and friends, for our colleagues.”

And he emphasized, “the pain, frustration and powerlessness they feel that they can't support colleagues as they want to in Gaza, as they can't get into Gaza or ensure the supplies.”

Highlighting the emotional toll of trying to provide support from afar, he pointed out that the primary question, in daily telephone checks, is “Are the people still alive?”

“And so when you hear first thing in the morning that the person you've been ringing for days is no longer with us. That's enormously disturbing,” he said, adding that this is yet another aspect of the war that raises a real question regarding the mental health of those who aren’t in Gaza. They are asking themselves 'How long can I continue to provide this support to staff when the cost, when they're killed, is very personal to me?'"

Blockades and closures

Describing the difficulties in delivering aid, Dutton explained, "While the fighting has been going on, it's been almost impossible to do anything: the borders have been firmly closed, and the shells and bombs have been flying frequently."

Thus, Dutton continued, not only is it practically impossible to provide humanitarian support, but the Caritas Jerusalem staff in Gaza is confined to shelters for safety.

Transfer of money

On a positive note, Dutton explained "We have managed miraculously - the banking system is still working - so we have been able to transfer sums of money into Gaza where they've been able to buy something."

However, he noted the makeshift nature of this assistance and the absence of the usual method of providing aid in the usual form of providing “cash by bank transfer and then local vendors provide the goods that they're able to buy.”

“So it's not just the humanitarian supplies that are so important, it's the commercial supplies so that people can buy things when they receive the cash assistance that they're sent,” he explained.

Otherwise, he explained, “everything has to resort back to rations being put together and distributed, which is logistically much more difficult in the best of times, and in the chaos and destruction of Gaza at the moment, that would be very, very difficult indeed."

Economic fallout in the West Bank

Discussing the economic fallout in Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jerusalem, Dutton, said that since 7 October “all the crossings between Jerusalem and the West Bank have been closed and all of the travel permits have been suspended.”

This means, he continued, that none of the Caritas staff has been able to move making their capacity to operate very restricted.

On top of this, he added, “About 200,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank have been unable to go to work since 7 October, which means that they are not being paid and are unable to provide for their families. The economic cost of this on Israel is also really quite enormous.”

"The sooner peace comes to the Holy Land," the Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis concluded, "the better it will be for Israel and for the Palestinian people."