Pax Christi USA is one of 21 faith-based organizations to endorse this new statement, organized by Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), calling for Israel to halt its planned military offensive in Gaza City. Increased military operations will only cause greater suffering and death for a civilian population that is being starved and that has nowhere else to go.
The statement declares: “[T]his displacement will result in a modern-day death march that is clearly intended to ethnically cleanse half of the Gaza Strip and compress all of Gaza’s population into a tiny sliver of territory incapable of sustaining life.” Signatories call on all parties, including the US, to use all leverage available to call upon the Israeli government to reverse its plans for a military offensive in Gaza City and to instead pursue a durable and lasting ceasefire.
Use this link to read Pax Christi International’s statement on the expected move by Israel to take control of Gaza City.
Use this link to read a statement released by the Latin and Greek Orthodox Patriarchs of Jerusalem on the situation.
The war in Gaza is showing few if any signs of waning. Every day seems to bring news of additional horrors that pile suffering on top of suffering. All of the killing, starvation, and destruction violates the essential imago dei in every person and that is the foundation of human dignity and freedom. The recent determination by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) regarding confirmed famine in Gaza impacting over 500,000 residents underscores the grave danger Gazans face even without the threat of increased military operations. We mourn those Palestinian Gazans who will die in the coming days, and we raise concerns about the intensified risks to the Israeli hostages, due to the new escalations that are about to be implemented.
On August 8, 2025, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli Security Cabinet approved a new military campaign to re-occupy Gaza City and forcibly eject its 710,000 inhabitants. The plan simultaneously cuts an additional 340,000 people off from what few lines of assistance remain in the northern sections of the Gaza Strip. This military strategy not only puts half of Gaza’s population in even more immediate danger, but could also result in the forced displacement of all of Gaza’s population into the southern half of the strip. According to the latest United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) snapshot, an estimated 86.3 percent of the Gaza Strip is under the Israeli-militarized zone and displacement orders for civilians. This leaves only 13.7 percent of the Gaza Strip’s original territory available for habitation outside a military zone for all of the Gaza Strip’s population. The taking of Gaza City would further decrease this available space while squeezing much of the Gaza Strip’s population into a piece of territory that is fundamentally unsuitable to allow such a densely packed population the ability to survive. The entire Gaza Strip has remained under Israeli military occupation since 1967, an occupation that the International Court of Justice deemed “unlawful” under international law.
Based on previous campaigns by the Israeli military forces in Gaza, the resultant expulsion of inhabitants from Gaza City and potentially northern Gaza would result in hundreds of thousands of people – many of whom are already malnourished and sick from a lack of adequate access to food, water, shelter or healthcare – being forced to walk at least 10-20 kilometers in the intense heat, without proper access to food or water. Most of them are elderly, women and children, and cannot manage such an arduous journey under the best of circumstances, let alone in the apocalyptic scenario Israel has currently imposed on Gaza. There are few to no functioning vehicles available to move so many people. Roads are damaged and destroyed, with remnants of war littering the entire Strip, so there are few clear avenues for safe movement. All of this displacement will occur within an active war zone under constant bombing, gunfire and shelling. More than 70 percent of Gaza’s Palestinian population are already refugees, many dating back to 1948, and almost all of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced in the past 22 months.
Assuming Palestinians can survive the proposed expulsion, they will then need to cross the Netzarim Corridor – a militarized corridor that the Israeli military bulldozed through the center of the Gaza Strip–which is notoriously dangerous to cross and has resulted in the deaths of numerous civilians and aid workers. Finally, assuming people make it into the southern Gaza Strip, they will arrive in a region equally devastated, with 92 percent of all housing units destroyed or damaged and 100 percent of the population facing acute food insecurity in the coming weeks and 89 percent of all water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) assets in Gaza either damaged or destroyed.
All of these actions proposed by Israel amount to collective punishment and forced displacement of an entire civilian population— a war crime as stipulated under the Fourth Geneva Convention (Articles 33 and 49). This displacement will result in a modern-day death march that is clearly intended to ethnically cleanse half of the Gaza Strip and compress all of Gaza’s population into a tiny sliver of territory incapable of sustaining life.
Churches for Middle East Peace and the churches and agencies signed below call on the United States, the United Nations, and all governments with influence over Israel to reject this plan of ethnic cleansing unequivocally, to use all available leverage to press for an immediate and durable ceasefire, and to demand unfettered humanitarian access to all parts of the Gaza Strip through credible and experienced aid mechanisms and modalities, including UN agencies. Our faith, seeing the image of God in each and every human being, calls us to feed the hungry, offer drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in captivity. We therefore urge all parties to act with urgency to save lives and prevent this catastrophe from further deepening, and to work to address the core issues so that a long-term, durable and just peace can be achieved.
Signed,
Alliance of Baptists
Churches for Middle East Peace
Church of the Brethren, Office of Peacebuilding and Policy
Church World Service
Community of Christ
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe Office for Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation
Friends Committee on National Legislation
General Board of Global Ministries, the United Methodist Church
Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Maryknoll Lay Missioners
Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic
Mennonite Central Committee US
National Council of Churches
Pax Christi USA
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Provincial Elders’ Conference of the Moravian Church, Northern Province in America
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team
Unitarian Universalist Association
United Women in Faith
Cover photo from UNICEF
Extraordinarily commendable the response of CMEP and their bravery to speak out against Israeli genocide in spite of those who would intimidate by calling them antisemites. In contrast, the most prominent politicians of both our major parties are on record as being on the take from powerful Israeli political action and public affairs committees such as AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee), ironically detested by an overwhelming majority of Jewish Americans, including senator Bernie Sanders (IND-Vermont) who is labeled an antisemite and persona non grata by PM Netanyahu. Shamefully and irreversibly, the Palestinians are doomed. Our children and their children some day will have to contend with our infamy as a collaborationist nation in genocide much like the shame borne by the Europeans who both actively and passively helped the Nazi exterminators.
David~Ross Gerling, PhD
Please add the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker to the list. Thank you .