Let’s start with Palestine... where bombardments continue to fall on Gaza territory. A territory razed to the ground by a destructive frenzy that has already reduced hospitals, schools, infrastructure and all forms of social life to rubble. From now on, the forces of evil will be unleashed on the skeletons that line up under the scorching sun, pots in hand, to ask for flour and water. A journalist filmed a 6-year-old boy bending over the bloodied body of his mother: ‘I would have rather starved to death than see my mother die savagely while trying to beg for a piece of bread!’ To die for a piece of bread in a region where bread is a sacred and social food is an abomination. The symbolic value of hospitality, community and tradition is turned into a weapon in the hands of the satiated. The ground is saturated with blood and mass graves overflow with buried bodies (the official death toll is over 50,000)! This piece of the “promised land” has become a huge catastrophe. Yet, the war machine continues to be fed and the slaughter continues to crush people like a mill crushes grain, under the sleepy gaze of the international community.

Benjamin Netanyahu boasts of leading Israel on SEVEN simultaneous war fronts: Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Iran, Shia groups in Iraq and Syria, Yemen to crumble the “axis of resistance” of which Hezbollah is an arm. For two months in September 2024, Lebanon was the scene of an intense bombardment that wiped out entire villages in the south, demolished neighbourhoods in Beirut, burned centuries-old forests, polluted river waters, displaced thousands of families, ruined factories and local plants, and killed hundreds of civilians. The ceasefire signed on 27 November put an end to the terror, but not to Israel’s continued violations and the vicious rhetoric of the Party of God.

In Syria, during the brief period of power instability following the flight of Bashar Al-Assad, more than 300 bombings were carried out against military targets in Syria, trampling on the 1974 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria. Once again, repeated acts of aggression occur without any international condemnation. The Syrian Church, whose mission is to ensure peaceful coexistence between the different religious communities in Syria, was savagely attacked by suicide bombers in the heart of the capital. The law of the jungle is thus taking hold in a country worn down by international sanctions and bruised by the iron fist of the deposed president. Syrian Christians continue to pay a heavy price for their attachment to their biblical homeland. Can they hope to be converted by the forces of evil on the road to Damascus? Added to this desolate landscape is the nuclear threat, suddenly awakened by the war between the Islamic Republic and Israel. Twelve days of cross-bombing, missiles intercepted in the skies of neighbouring countries. Once again, innocent people pay for the war of others!

Who cares? What can charity achieve in this context? This question torments me in the face of humanity’s inability to raise its voice, to reach out to the hungry and thirsty to demand justice and peace, to denounce the evil that mercilessly destroys human lives. Sharing a piece of bread, drying a tear, giving a smile… these are small, insignificant gestures in the face of the atrocities of the great powers, but they carry an energy that is synchronised by brotherhood and enriched by solidarity. If it is true that “man does not live by bread alone”, it is up to us to fight so that he does not die of this either. The Thouret Foundation, among many others, aims to give bread back its metaphorical meaning of friendship and life.. Sr Myrna Farah, Roma—Ufficio Internazionale per l’Educazione