|PIC1|The largest Christian ecumenical body in the world has urgently appealed for the international community to “do whatever is possible to stop the bombings, negotiate a cease-fire and a comprehensive peace settlement”.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) General Secretary General, Rev Samuel Kobia, has called on the “leaders of the international community, especially to those from the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom” to bring about a resolution to the conflict currently raging in the Middle East.

The WCC appeal also calls on the Israeli government to “give guarantees that humanitarian organisations will be allowed unhindered access to those in need of assistance”.

“Our hearts cry out to the leaders of the international community”, says Kobia, who describes the current fighting as “a war of ominous dimension and of far-reaching consequences” that is causing “unimaginable and untold suffering to the people in Lebanon.”

|TOP|While “a major tragedy continues to unfold in the troubled region of the Middle East”, the world sees the “shocking and disgraceful” spectacle of world leaders announcing “in a most callous manner that fighting will continue till strategic military objectives are met”.

Rev Kobia alleged that what leaders were really saying was that “more people can continue to be killed while they take their time to settle their political differences”.

He affirmed that “blind faith in military violence to resolve disputes and disagreements is totally unwarranted, illegal and immoral”.

Judging that the present “disproportionate acts of violence of immense magnitude can have no justification,” he notes that the United Nations Security Council “has been paralysed by the power and politics of the dominant nations and its charter undermined”.

The WCC general secretary has offered his prayers for “all the people of Lebanon, Muslims and Christians alike" and "the people of Israel who have fallen victims to the missiles that continue to be fired indiscriminately into their towns and villages”.

The WCC is currently working on putting together a pastoral delegation to Lebanon, an initiative that is on hold for the time being given security concerns and logistical difficulties.