Pope slams 'cruelty' of Israeli strike killing Gaza children
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Pope Francis condemned the Israeli massacre of children in Gaza, which killed around seven children and an entire family in one strike.
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Pope Francis attends his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, on December 4, 2024. (AP)
On Saturday, Pope Francis denounced the bombing of children in Gaza as an act of "cruelty," following a report from the territory's rescue agency that an Israeli airstrike had killed seven children from the same family.
Gaza's Civil Defense rescue agency reported that an Israeli airstrike on Friday in the northern region of the territory killed 10 members of a family, including seven children.
"Yesterday they did not allow the Patriarch (of Jerusalem) into Gaza as promised. Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war," he told members of the government of the Holy See, adding "I want to say it because it touches my heart."
Since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the Pope has consistently called for "peace". However, in recent weeks, he has adopted a firmer stance against the Israeli offensive.
At the end of November, the Pope stated that "the invader's arrogance... prevails over dialogue" in "Palestine," marking a rare departure from the Holy See's tradition of neutrality.
In extracts from a forthcoming book published in November, he called for a "careful" study as to whether the situation in Gaza "corresponds to the technical definition" of genocide, an accusation firmly rejected by the Israeli occupation.
The Holy See has recognized the State of Palestine since 2013 and maintains diplomatic relations with it, supporting a two-state solution.
Around the same time last year, in his annual Christmas message on December 23, Pope Francis briefly described the Israeli genocide in Gaza as an "appalling harvest" of civilians.
He then opted to reiterate his dismissive stance on the events of October 7 and called for the release of Israeli captives held 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."
