Emergency aid has not been delivered to Gaza since 7th March, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
The Church said that as war rages across the Middle East, the dire situation of communities in the Gaza and the West Bank is being compounded by Israel's decision to block aid.
George Akroush, director of the development office of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (LPJ), told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that, despite the ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli authorities have stopped emergency supplies from entering the strip.
“Since 7 March not a single humanitarian shipment was delivered to Gaza, including medication, spare parts for hospitals, not even antibiotics.
“We are trying our best to help the only Christian hospital there, which is very close to the Catholic compound, but all the channels that the Latin Patriarchate used to communicate with the authorities were closed."
The move follows Israel announcing the indefinite closure of crossings into Gaza for security reasons from 1st March.
According to Akroush the move has forced the LPJ to rethink plans to reopen one of the Christian schools in Gaza: “We were about to share that we decided to reopen the school, first with 400 students, then 600 and then 1,000, but with this war we are not sure whether we can stick to this plan.”
After the Gaza ceasefire was announced in October, around 300 people moved out of the Holy Family Church’s compound where they had been for more than two years.
But around 250 people are still sheltering there, including 50 people living with disabilities who are being cared for by the Missionaries of Charity.
Akroush stressed that the West Bank’s community is also facing difficulties – despite Israel’s High Court temporarily halting a ban on aid groups from working there at the end of last month.
International aid organisations, including Caritas, Oxfam and Save the Children, were told to comply with extensive new rules or stop providing help for Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israeli authorities stated the new licencing process was necessary because charities’ staff have links to militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. But the closing of border crossings from the West Bank into Israel has caused major problems.
Akroush said: “180,000 Palestinians from the West Bank used to have permits to work in Israel. After the 7th October attacks in 2023, the number dropped to 15,000.
“Unfortunately, now even those have lost access to their livelihoods, including teachers and support staff at the Christian schools in Jerusalem.
“This is a big challenge that we have to face, because 40 percent of our high-quality teachers and support staff come from the West Bank on a daily basis.”
Dr John Newton from ACN told Premier Christian News:“It's gone from a situation whereby there was a steady flow of aid into the country to one where it's dried up. The trouble is that so many things are happening in the Middle East at the moment, Lebanon is going up in flames, Iran is going up in flames.
"There's this ongoing situation we've had in Gaza for such a long time. And there's problems in the West Bank too, affecting Christians as well. So we really do need to keep the whole of the Middle East in our gaze and raise up the whole of the Middle East in our prayers to God.”