‘Where are we going next?’

Franciscan Friar Ibrahim Faltas of the Custody of the Holy Land reflects on the suffering of children in Gaza, forced into repeated displacement and uncertainty. He calls on educators, families, and societies to form new generations in a true culture of peace, urging all to “continue to believe, to pray, and to hope for peace.”

By Fr. Ibrahim Faltas, OFM, Custody of the Holy Land

The endless tragedy of Gaza’s children can be summed up in one question: “Where are we going next?” A child turns to his father with this cry after being forced, once more, to leave behind the warmth and protection of home. Having already sought new places and supposed safe shelters, families find themselves displaced again and again.

The constant trauma of insecurity is added to death, pain, and deprivation. Children pay the highest price. One’s first years of life are meant to be a time when family, school, and society transmit values, stability, and tools for growth. Yet the children of Gaza are living their earliest years amid suffering, hardship, and fear.

Every day, I experience the urgency of providing our children and young people with instruments that allow for genuine peaceful coexistence. It is a demanding commitment, yet also rewarding, because it brings concrete results: children have an innate capacity to recognise what is good, to welcome differences rather than judge them.

But to the question “Where are we going next?” parents in Gaza have no credible reply. They themselves have no answers to what is upending their lives. They cannot reassure their children that they are going to a beautiful place, because the destruction around them has scarred their land. They cannot promise that they will finally find safety and begin to recover lost serenity, leaving behind hatred and revenge, because they are treated as people to be moved according to the latest wave of violence.

The new generations of the Holy Land will need great care and attention to be formed and educated as women and men of peace. This is the essential and complex responsibility of educators, families, civil societies, and governments that believe in peace and truly desire it.

In these painful days, when violence is answered with even greater violence, it is not easy to believe and to hope that the spiral dragging life’s beauty into the depths of evil can be stopped. Yet I would like to respond to that question – “Where are we going next?” – with the power of hope.

I would like to tell that child, and all children suffering because of the irresponsibility of adults, that the nightmare is over. That they are going home, to their loved ones, to rediscover friends and teachers, games, books, pencils, and notebooks. I would also like to say to adults: the nightmare has ended. Let us continue to believe, to pray, and to hope for peace.

Source: Republished from Vatican News