“I continue to think about the serious situation in Palestine and Israel, where many people lost their lives,” said the leader of the Catholic Church, after praying the Angelus before thousands of faithful.
This Sunday, Pope Francis reiterated his calls for an end to the fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, the immediate release of the hostages and the provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where the situation is “very serious.”
“I continue to think about the serious situation in Palestine and Israel, where many people lost their lives,” said the leader of the Catholic Church, after praying the Angelus before thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
“I ask you, in the name of God, to stop, to cease the fire. “I hope that all possibilities will be explored so that the escalation of the conflict is completely avoided, that the wounded can be helped, that aid can reach Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very serious, and that the hostages are released immediately.” , he continued. .
The Pope has intervened several times since the start of the war, calling for an end to the fighting, the release of hostages and humanitarian aid for Gaza.
On October 7, the Palestinian movement Hamas – considered terrorist by the European Union, the United States and Israel – carried out an attack of unprecedented dimensions in Israeli territory, leaving more than 1,400 dead, most of them civilians, and more than 200 hostages. . who is held captive in the Gaza Strip.
Israel then began strong reprisals against that poor Palestinian enclave, controlled by Hamas since 2007, with cuts in the supply of food, water, electricity and fuel and daily bombings, followed by a ground offensive that completed the siege of Gaza City on Thursday. .
In a report prepared on Saturday, the Gaza Ministry of Health stated that as of that date, 9,488 people, including 3,900 children, had been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war with Israel.
Since the beginning of the escalation and citing security concerns, Israel ordered the withdrawal of civilians living in the north of the narrow enclave to the south, displacing around 1.5 million Gazans – more than half of the population. total population – in a context of serious fuel shortages. .
However, Israeli forces continued shelling the southern part of the Strip, where the living conditions of Gazans are increasingly critical due to overcrowding, collapsing hospitals and shortages of drinking water, food, medicine and supplies. electricity.
For their part, Hamas and other Palestinian militias continued to fire rockets at Israel, sounding sirens even in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, although most of the projectiles were intercepted by air defense systems.
Source: Observadora
