WORDS & PICTURES FROM FR BILLY FROM GAZA Dear friends and parishioners. Greetings to you all from the holy land as I write these words from the ancient city of Jerusalem, about 120 miles north-east of the Gaza strip. In the tragic conflict that has been taking place in Gaza in recent weeks, hospitals have also been targeted by bombs and missiles. They are no longer safe as places of refuge and care. Therefore some of the seriously injured have been brought to hospitals here in Jerusalem. Today, Sunday, I visited one of these hospitals run by the Catholic Sisters of St Joseph where I met some of the victims of the violence in Gaza. Here are some photos that I share with you from my visit to the hospital. Others are too disturbing to show. It is the desire of these people that the story of their suffering be shared with those willing to listen and to see. In the first picture you will notice the little girl on the right is not smiling. The reason she is not smiling is not because of the wounds visible on her arm. She is not smiling because all her family: mother, father, brothers and sisters – have all been killed by a shell. Only she survived. The second picture shows a man at the bedside of his 15 year old son whose foot has been blown away. The third picture shows a man who lost half his arm and a leg in the same incident. The fourth picture shows a young boy of 13 with serious internal injuries, caused by an air missile strike on his home. The fifth picture shows two mothers of injured children with one of the Sisters who works at the hospital. It is a picture that speaks peace and the respect given to the Sisters for the incredible work they do. Lastly, there is a picture with Muhummad, a 14 year old boy who is not seriously injured but separated from his family. His is a good picture to end for it speaks of life that has survived and a hope so badly needed for these people. Today I saw suffering that made me angry: angry because of man’s inhumanity to man, angry because of the innocent who suffer most and angry because the international community does not seem capable of preventing the bloodshed. Yet I also felt proud to be a Catholic Christian and united to those who are helping these people who are suffering so much at this time. May our parish and the Irish people keep the people of Gaza in our prayers and that they may know our real solidarity with them in their pain.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 20:56:01 +0000
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