Pope Francis today publicly condemned Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, a day after he was criticized by an Israeli minister for claiming that the international community should investigate a military offensive in the enclave for potential genocide against the Palestinian people.
Francis opened his annual Christmas address to Catholic cardinals who lead Vatican departments with a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza.
“Children were bombed yesterday,” Franjo said and added:
“It’s cruelty. It’s not war. I wanted to say that because it touches the heart,” he said.
The leader of 1.4 billion Catholics is usually cautious about taking sides in conflicts, but recently he has become more vocal in his criticism of Israel’s military campaign against the Palestinian group Hamas.
In excerpts from the book published last month, Francis says that some international experts claim that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of genocide.”
Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli vehemently criticized the claims in an unusually open letter published yesterday by the Italian daily newspaper Il Foglio.
Chikli believes that the pope’s claims have trivialized the term genocide.
The Pope also said on Friday that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem tried to enter the Gaza Strip yesterday to visit the Catholics there, but was prevented from doing so.
(Vijesti.ba)
