Pope Francis sparked a diplomatic controversy Saturday by sharply criticizing Israeli military operations in Gaza. During his annual Christmas address to Catholic cardinals, the pontiff said: “Yesterday, children were bombed. This is cruelty. This is not war.” The reaction of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not long in coming: “Cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to kill Israeli children; cruelty is holding 100 hostages since 442 days, including a baby and children.” “The Pope's remarks are particularly disappointing because they are disconnected from the real and factual context of Israel's fight against jihadist terrorism,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that it was necessary to “put an end to double standards, two measures” with regard to Israel.
The ministry also stressed that Israel “is making extraordinary efforts to avoid harm to innocent people, while Hamas is making extraordinary efforts to increase harm to Palestinian civilians.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel toughened her tone by accusing the Pope of “undermining 80 years of rebuilding relations between Roman Catholics and Jews since the Holocaust.” She added that he “destroys the reconciliation that Pope John Paul II so passionately sought with the Jews.”
Another point of tension emerged regarding the planned visit of the Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem to Gaza. While Pope Francis claimed that the latter had been refused entry on Friday, the Israeli army clarified that “the entry of the patriarch has been approved and that he will enter Gaza on Sunday”. The IDF also stressed that it “works in cooperation with the Christian community to facilitate the lives of the Christian population who remain in the Gaza Strip, including by coordinating their evacuation to a third country.”
