Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori reiterated her December 29 call for an immediate ceasefire saying: 

We are deeply saddened by the first-hand reports we are receiving from Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza about the casualties they are treating under the most horrific circumstances.  Not only do they lack basic medical supplies, but with windows blown out they are even struggling to keep patients warm.  The high number of civilian deaths and injuries, which continue to include noncombatants, women, and children, will only prolong the violence years into the future.  Israel’s disproportionate response to the rockets being fired into its cities may well encourage violence beyond Gaza and Israel.  The first steps toward peace will only come if all parties unite behind an immediate ceasefire.  Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded the world that “an eye for an eye soon leaves the whole world blind.”  May we seek to end this blinding violence.