Upon his return flight from Singapore, Pope Francis on Friday condemned the deaths of Palestinian children in Gaza caused by Israeli airstrikes, criticizing the bombings of schools under the pretext of targeting Hamas strongholds as "ugly."

Expressing doubt about either side taking genuine steps toward peace, the pope voiced his concerns after 11 months of genocide.

He mentioned that he holds conversations with a Catholic parish in Gaza on a daily basis and that "they tell me ugly things, difficult things". 

"Please, when you see the bodies of killed children when you see that, under the presumption that some guerrillas are there, a school is bombed, this is ugly," the 87-year-old pontiff said. "It is ugly." 

The pope has consistently advocated for a ceasefire in the embattled Strip. Reflecting on the scale of the ongoing genocide, he remarked that the war has become "too much."

Read more: 'So much suffering in Gaza' says Pope Francis, urges ceasefire

In his annual Christmas message last year, Pope Francis says Israeli strikes are reaping an "appalling harvest" of innocent civilians in Gaza.

In a speech to thousands of people in the Vatican's St. Basilica, he said, "How many innocents are being slaughtered in our world? In their mothers’ wombs, in odysseys undertaken in desperation and search of hope, and in the lives of all those little ones whose childhood has been devastated by war. They are the little Jesuses of today."

"May peace come in Israel and Palestine, where war is devastating the lives of those people. I embrace them all, particularly the Christian communities of Gaza and the entire Holy Land."

"I plead for an end to the military operations with their appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims and call for a solution to the desperate humanitarian situation by opening the provision of humanitarian aid."