The bishops of the United States have called for prayers for peace in Israel and Gaza following the announcement of an agreement between the Gaza Board of Peace and Hamas.
“I am heartened by news of an agreement which aims at the disarmament of Hamas and Israel’s military withdrawal from the Strip, and I call for intense prayers for the success of these negotiations,” said Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, in an August 3 statement.
“This agreement’s successful implementation, as its principles statement says, has the potential of finally providing the Palestinian people with a ‘credible political path that achieves self-determination and Statehood’. This would be a major milestone,” he continued.
Bishop Zaidan also leads the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles.
“As I previously articulated, as ‘people of faith who deeply care for all our brothers and sisters who live in the land of Christ’s life, death, and glorious resurrection, we cannot lose this opportunity for peace,’” Bishop Zaidan said.
He called on the United States, Israel and the wider international community to “facilitate greater amounts of humanitarian and developmental assistance to the [Gaza] Strip”.
Such assistance, he said, should include restoring employment opportunities, expanding educational opportunities for children and young people, and ensuring access to clean water.
“Alleviating the suffering of the Gazan people is not only a vital moral imperative but is also necessary for the consolidation of peace in the Holy Land and the entire region,” he said.
“Conscious of the extreme challenges inherent in this ongoing peace process, let us entrust the hearts and minds of the negotiators to the maternal care of Our Lady of Wisdom, that she may illumine and enliven their efforts to finally achieve peace in those sacred lands.”
The White House announced on July 30 that the Gaza Board of Peace had reached what it described as a “HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza”. President Donald Trump called it a “monumental step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace to help the Palestinian people”.
President Trump said the agreement would be implemented in phases, adding that “we have made historic progress and there is still much work to do”.
One of the remaining obstacles is securing the agreement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a video statement released several days after the announcement, Netanyahu, who sits on the Board of Peace, said he had not agreed to the proposal. Israel would not withdraw its troops until Hamas had been “completely disarmed”, he said.
He also suggested that Israel had not endorsed the draft agreement.
“President Trump thinks — or his team thinks — that they can get Hamas to disarm and demilitarize Gaza. We are looking into it. They sent us a draft. We did not agree to it. It was not our draft. We sent back our comments,” Netanyahu said.
