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or we face hell, pleads Syrian Jesuit.

Fr Ziad Hilal SJ, the Jesuit priest from Syria who spoke at Farm Street Church in London last year, has just returned from the eastern part of Aleppo – his first visit there for five years. He was able to assess the situation, specifically in the Christian quarter of Al-Midan, and describe what he witnessed to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN): “All you see is total destruction,” he told the international charity.

Fr Hilal, who oversees projects in Syria for ACN, gave a talk in July 2015 on the current situation in Syria as part of Farm Street Church's Aid for Syria initiative and revisited the parish when he passed through London earlier this year. He works for the Jesuit Refugee Service in Syria and, over the weekend, he appealed to the parties in the conflict in Syria and western nations to cease provocation and commit themselves to reconciliation. His call comes less than a week after a ceasefire agreement came into effect for the Syrian city – with only limited effect, according to Fr Hilal.

“We hear bombs and missile fire relatively close by,” he told ACN by phone. “Not far from us there are two areas where the rebels are holed up and refuse to surrender. Up to now we’ve only heard fighting.”

History and civilisation destroyed

At the end of December, the Jesuit residence in Aleppo was shelled, but luckily no one was killed. The community should have been celebrating Mass at the same time that it was bombed, but on that particular Saturday, they were elsewhere on a retreat with a community of Franciscan Sisters. Fr Hilal is urging politicians to seek reconciliation in Syria, otherwise, he says, it will be hell for those living there. “We’ve destroyed the city because we haven’t yet managed to come together in a dialogue,” he insists. “We’ve lost our civilisation and destroyed our history. What for? It’s a tragedy.”

Despite the bitter fighting, which has completely destroyed Aleppo, Fr Hilal says that people need to keep hope alive. “Call on the politicians to exercise reason and to seek moderate talks and reconciliation,” he said at the weekend. “The Middle East must become a peaceful region where all live in peace together. Otherwise it will become hell for us.”

Read also: Aleppo Diary December 2016

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