On April 12, Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the World Alliance, wrote to Ariel Sharon urging an immediate halt to the current operations in the Palestine territories by the Israeli defence forces, which, Nyomi said, "can bring neither peace nor security".

He expressed puzzlement that the government of Israel had "turned its back on a political solution" which would enable the people of Israel and the people of Palestine "to live side-by-side peacefully with tangible security in the land".

IDF flare lights the night sky

In a simultaneous letter to Alliance member churches, Nyomi called on them "to make every effort to divert the messenger of death from all the households of the holy land, both Jewish and Arab, and to restore peace with justice where our Lord first preached it".

"Today," he said - alluding to Jer 31.15 and Mt 2.18 - "we hear mounting lamentation and bitter weeping in Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Nablus, Qalqilya, Ramallah, and Tulkarem, where the Israeli defence forces are killing and injuring many hundreds of innocent civilians. They are demolishing houses and other property, and destroying the infrastructure of Palestine society, in the name of a "war against terrorism' that becomes ever more obviously a war of terror by the state of Israel against the whole Palestinian community."

"At the same time," Nyomi said, "we can never justify or condone the killing of innocent people by suicide bombings. This also causes bitter weeping and lamentation."

He asked Alliance churches to keep all the people of the holy land in their thoughts and prayers; to write to their governments, urging them to press the Israeli government to turn from self-defeating violence; and to write in similar terms or, where possible, go in person to Israeli embassies.

"A lasting settlement," Nyomi said, "must address the issues of peaceful coexistence, security for all, the return of the territories illegally occupied since 1967, and a just settlement of the Palestinian refugee question."

For the full text of Nyomi's letters, click here.