Help for Gaza’s Children

The Swiss National Commission Justitia et Pax is calling for the creation of a humanitarian corridor in the Gaza Strip in view of the catastrophic situation there. Guaranteed by both belligerent parties, the corridor would allow children, adolescents and their mothers to be extracted from the war zone. Caritas Baby Hospital in Bethlehem would be willing and able to organize necessary medical aid for these children.

Switzerland’s Catholics have supported the civil population of the Holy Land for years, notably through Children’s Relief Bethlehem and its Caritas Baby Hospital in Bethlehem. During this time, numerous direct contacts have grown up with the residents in and near the present war zone, and all of these sources confirm the suffering and helplessness of the Gaza Strip populace. The untenable conditions there are particularly dire in their effect on the sick and wounded; and of these, children suffer the most.

Caritas Baby Hospital in Bethlehem is offering to cooperate with other hospitals in the region to provide needed medical assistance to wounded children and adolescents. However, this requires a guarantee from both sides in the conflict to respect the corridor and to refrain from all military operations there. Justitia et Pax appeals to the international community of nations as well as to the bodies that implement Swiss foreign policy, to exert every influence on the belligerents to achieve this goal, and to open safe passage to the wounded and to their mothers or other guardians.

The Swiss National Commission Justitia et Pax is a staff commission of the Swiss Bishops‘ Conference.