The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip resulted in the death of seven children from one family.
Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the bombing of children in the Gaza Strip as cruelty, a day after the Palestinian Authority announced that seven children from one family had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
The Palestinian Authority for Civil Defense said on Friday that ten members of one family, including seven children, were the victims of an Israeli airstrike in the north of the enclave.
“Yesterday, they did not let the (Jerusalem) patriarch into the Gaza Strip, as they promised. Yesterday they bombed the children. This is cruelty, this is not war,” said the head of the Catholic Church. “I want to say this because it touches me,” added Pope Francis.
The Israeli army claims that the attack hit “several terrorists operating in a military structure belonging to the terrorist organization Hamas, who posed a threat to Israeli troops operating in the area”, writes AFP. The army also disputed the Palestinian Authority’s data on the number of casualties, adding that the number did not match with army information.
The Pope has been calling for peace for a long time
Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, which broke out after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Pope has called for peace several times. In recent weeks, according to AFP, he has hardened his statements against the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian enclave, which has claimed 45,206 victims in more than 14 months. In late November, Francis said that the “arrogance of the attacker…prevails over the dialogue in Palestine,” which AFP described as a rare stance that contradicts the Holy See’s tradition of neutrality.
In excerpts from the forthcoming book, the Pope called for a thorough examination of whether the situation in the Gaza Strip “corresponds to the technical definition” of genocide. AFP notes that Israel rejects claims that it is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. The Vatican has recognized the Palestinian state since 2013, maintaining diplomatic relations with it. relations and supports a two-state solution, adds AFP.
