Vatican newspaper asks: 'Who decides the life of the children of Gaza?' (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))

In “Chi decide della vita dei bambini di Gaza?” [Who decides the life of the children of Gaza?], a prominent front-page article in the August 1 edition of the Vatican newspaper, a leading Franciscan official in the Holy Land deplored starvation there.

Father Ibrahim Faltas, OFM, the vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land, asked, “Who decides on a child’s death? Who refuses to give them food if they’re hungry, water if they’re thirsty, or medicine if they’re sick? ... What drives a human being to attack and destroy the lives of children?”

He added, “What do the concentration camps, monuments to a history that must never be repeated, remind us of? ... Who decides that a malnourished mother must witness the death of her child because she can’t breastfeed him and formula isn’t arriving in Gaza?”

Father Faltas also related “news that shocked me and that I never wanted to hear: many children [in Gaza] try to kill themselves, and often succeed.”