Pope Francis reflected on the devastating consequences of the Gaza war in a speech at the Vatican on Saturday, expressing deep sorrow over the bombing of children in the Gaza Strip the day before.
“This is cruelty. This is not war. I want to say this because it touches the heart,” said the visibly moved pope, who leads the 1.4 billion members of the Catholic Church worldwide.
Israel described the pope’s words as “disappointing” and claimed that the pope ignored the fact that Israel is engaged in a multi-front war imposed on the country.
The pope also noted that Israeli airstrikes had prevented Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the highest representative of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, from entering Gaza.
“Yesterday the Patriarch was not allowed into Gaza as they had promised,” he told members of the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s central government.
On Friday, Pope Francis described the war in Gaza as “criminal acts” during an interview, also drawing parallels with the war in Ukraine.
He criticized actions in both conflicts that defy the rules of conventional warfare, calling them “not warfare, but criminal acts,” according to the Vatican News portal.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Francis of directing the accusation of brutality at the wrong target.
“Atrocity is when terrorists hide behind children while trying to kill Israeli children; “Atrocity occurs when 100 hostages, including a baby and children, are held and abused by terrorists for 442 days,” Saar said.
Since October 2023, Israel has been fighting the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza, where more than 45,100 people have been killed so far, according to Palestinian figures.
The war was sparked by the massacre of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of about 250 hostages on October 7, 2023 in Israel by Palestinian militants and other groups from the coastal strip.
