Gaza - A Slow Martyrdom

Bishop Joseph Strickland

Typical scene of destruction wrought by Israeli forces in Gaza

This latest statement by Bishop Strickland beautifully captures the horrors in the Gaza Strip that have been inflicted on the Palestinians at the hands of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We might see Netanyahu as Zionism personified. Too long has Israel tormented the Palestinian martyrs, kudos to Bishop Strickland for defending them. In no way is this intended to be a political statement but a religious one grounded in charity.

June 30, 2025

“They have not known nor understood: they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth shall be moved” (Psalm 81:5).

As the world has turned its gaze toward war between Israel and Iran, I must raise my voice for those the world chooses not to see: the starving, the displaced, the humiliated poor of Gaza and the West Bank.

In Gaza, a slow martyrdom unfolds each day. Not in silence—but still unheard. Mothers cradle starving children. Bread is made from bean powder and soaked pasta. A kilo of flour costs more than a day’s wages. Men are shot for standing in line. Women are trampled beneath aid trucks. And still, they come—because hunger does not negotiate.

Yet even the hunger has been weaponized.

Aid has become a trap. Under the banner of the U.S.–Israeli–backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the hungry are funneled into fenced aid zones that resemble execution pits more than relief centers. Armed gangs, sniper fire, and psychological warfare greet them. One man likened the experience to the dystopian television show Squid Game—a spectacle of suffering where death is filmed and dignity erased. Soldiers watch behind screens. Food is no longer a gift—it is a gauntlet.

This is not aid. This is cruelty dressed as compassion. And the world says little—because Gaza’s suffering has become too constant to trend.

Meanwhile, the bulldozers of injustice continue in the West Bank. The people of Ras Ain al-Ouja, a Palestinian Bedouin village near Jericho, face erasure from their land. Their crops are burned. Their water was stolen. Their livestock was seized by settlers. Children live in fear. Families who have lived on the land for generations are pushed out to make room for annexation masked as “grazing rights.”

I SPEAK TODAY NOT FROM POLITICS but from faith. I am a bishop of the Catholic Church, a shepherd of souls. And as a shepherd, I say clearly: No just cause can be built on the bones of the innocent.

Let me be equally clear:

• The starvation of a people is evil.

• The manipulation of aid for domination is evil.

• The forced removal of families from their ancestral homes is evil.

To my brother bishops: Where are our voices?

To world leaders: Do not dare call this “complicated.”

To the faithful: Now is the time for prayer, for fasting, for action, for truth spoken in love.

The Church has never taught that silence in the face of evil is a virtue. In the words of Pope Pius XII:

“The blood of innocent people cries out to heaven, especially when shed in silence.”

—Pope Pius XII, Address to Belgian Pilgrims, September 1946

And in the words of our Lord:

“Whatsoever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for Me” (Matt. 25:45).

If we ignore Gaza, if we forget Ras Ain al-Ouja, we are not merely indifferent—we are complicit.

This is not merely a local issue half a world away. This is not only a humanitarian crisis. This is a spiritual war against the image of God in the poor. And the Church must not cower and remain silent.

Let us remember the words of Pope St. Pius X:

“All the strength of Satan’s reign is due to the easy-going weakness of Catholics.”

—Pope St. Pius X, Discourse to the Union of Catholic Women, Dec. 18, 1903

To the people of Gaza: You are not forgotten.

To the families of Ras Ain al-Ouja: Your cry has reached the heavens.

To all who suffer under oppression: The Good Shepherd sees you, and His justice will not sleep forever.

I urge Catholics everywhere to offer reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced again in the suffering of the least of these. And I urge the Church universal to reclaim her voice—prophetic, bold, and faithful to the Gospel of peace and justice.

“He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, both are abominable before God” (Proverbs 17:15).

Let us not be abominable. Let us be faithful.

In Christ our Eucharistic King,

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland

Bishop Emeritus