Vatican: Pope Francis denounced Israel killing children in Gaza and called it “cruelty”, “not war”, on Saturday, The Times of India reported.
An Israel strike on Gaza had killed seven children of a single family on Friday. However, Israel claimed that it was aiming at Hamas terrorists who were using civilian areas for operations against it.
During his Christmas address to cardinals on Saturday, Pope said, “Yesterday, children were bombed. This is cruelty, and it touches my heart,” TOI quoted.
But the Israeli government reacted sharply. It accused the Pope of showing double standards, disregarding the factual context of Israel’s battle against jihadist terrorism. A spokesperson for Israel’s foreign ministry said that the papacy is singling out the Jewish state and its people.
The spokesperson said, “Enough with the singling out of the Jewish state and its people,” AFP quoted.
Pope Francis said that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem was denied entry to the Gaza Strip on Friday. The bishop, also known as a patriarch, was going to visit Catholics in the enclave.
The 88-year-old Pope has kept calling for peace in Gaza, and recently, he questioned whether the events in the enclave could meet the legal definition of genocide, which Israel always denied.
The state of Palestine was recognised in 2013, and since then, the Holy See has supported a two-state solution for lasting peace in the region.
It was on October 7th last year that the deadly war started in ill-fated territory. On that day, the militant group in Gaza, Hamas, carried out a lightning strike in Israel's territory, killing at least 1,200 people there. The group also took around 250 Israeli people as hostages. In retaliation, Israel started the full-on invasion of Gaza, which has killed over 45,000 people in Gaza, and most of them are women and children.