VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis doubled down Sunday on his condemnation of Israel’s strikes on the Gaza Strip, denouncing their “cruelty” for the second time in as many days despite Israel accusing him of “double standards”.
“And with pain, I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty,” the pope said after his weekly Angelus prayer.
It comes a day after the 88-year-old Argentine lamented an Israeli airstrike that killed seven children from one family on Friday, according to Gaza’s rescue agency.
“Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” the pope told members of the government of the Holy See.
His remarks on Saturday prompted a sharp response from Israel. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman described Francis’s statement as “particularly disappointing.
Gaza Death Toll Soars to 45,259
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has launched a relentless bombardment campaign in Gaza killing at least 45,259 Palestinians, mostly women and children, the territory’s health ministry reported on Sunday.
Those figures are taken as reliable by the United Nations.
Meanwhile, Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip early Sunday killed at least 28 Palestinians, including at one family’s home and a school building, the Palestinian Defence rescue agency reported.
Palestinian medics said eight people, including children, were killed in the Musa Bin Nusayr School that sheltered displaced families in Gaza.
Israeli military has confirmed a separate strike further north, on a school in Gaza City.
Civil agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal in a statement said that at least 13 people were killed in an air strike on a house in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah belonging to the Abu Samra family.
Bassal said a drone strike early on Sunday also hit a car in Gaza City, killing four people. Meanwhile, an overnight strike killed three people in Rafah, in the south.
Ceasefire Talks
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, were held last week in Doha to reach a peace deal.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed hope for a peace agreement but refrained from speculating on when it would be materialised.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, emphasised that the Israeli government is still far from finalising a prisoner swap deal with Hamas.
According to an Israeli state television KAN, unnamed Israeli officials shared their views on the ongoing negotiations for a prisoner swap.
The officials confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no intention of stopping strikes on Gaza.
