SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Joshua McElwee
What appeared to be a guide to Israeli strikes on Friday that left at least 25 Palestinians dead in Gaza, as Francis addressed the Catholic cardinals who control the Vatican’s different departments in his annual Christmas target.
” Monday, babies were bombed”, the Pope said. ” This is cruelty. This is not battle. Because it touches the spirit, I wanted to say this.
The Pope is typically cautious about taking attributes in wars, but he has just been more open about Israel’s military campaign against the Palestinian militant group Hamas. As head of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church.
He claimed that some foreign authorities had said that the situation in Gaza resembled a genocide in book excerpts released last month.
Amichai Chikli, the Israeli minister of community affairs, criticized those remarks in an unexpected open letter that was published on Friday by the European publication Il Foglio. Chikli said the Pope’s comment amounted to a” trivialisation” of the term murder.
Israel’s foreign ministry claimed that Israel was standing up for the violence committed by Hamas militants by “hiding behind kids while trying to murder Jewish children” and holding 100 captives and abusing them.
” However, the Pope has chosen to ignore all of this”, the department said, adding that the “death of any honest man in a battle is a drama”.
Hamas makes incredible efforts to harm Arab civilians, according to the statement, while Israel makes incredible efforts to stop harm to innocent people.
Francis added that the Catholic priest of Jerusalem, known as a father, had attempted to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday but was denied entry.
The priest’s business informed Reuters that it was unable to comment on Pope Pope’s remarks about the father being denied access.
In the event of serious security concerns, the Israeli military announced on Saturday that the prince’s entry had been approved and that he would enter Gaza on Sunday. Support from the priest’s office entered last month, the military said.
Israel “works in cooperation with the Christian community to facilitate the Holy community that is still living in the Gaza Strip, including co-ordinating its removal from the Gaza Strip to a second state,” according to a declaration from the military.
The battle began when Hamas-led Arab insurgents attacked southern Jewish communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people, mostly citizens, and taking more than 250 victims up to Gaza, according to Israeli government.
Israel’s hostile plan, which it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas, has killed more than 45, 000 people, mostly citizens, say regulators in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The majority of the area has been destroyed, and the plan has displaced nearly the entire populace.
Israel claims that at least a second of the victims were militants and that it is attempting to protect citizens but is battling insurgents who it claims are emancipating among the populace in compact urban places. Hamas rejects this.
Reuters
