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Pope Francis persists and still condemns “the cruelty” of the strikes against Gaza
Pope Francis persists and signs, condemning again on Sunday “the cruelty” of the Israeli strikes against Gaza, after having already done so on Saturday, despite the protests of Israeli diplomacy which accused him of having “double standards “It is with pain that I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the machine-gunned children, of the bombing of schools and hospitals, how much cruelty,” he said at the end of the meeting. Sunday prayer of the Angelus.Saturday morning, Pope Francis was already moved by the death of seven children from the same family in Gaza, announced the day before by the Civil Defense of the Palestinian territory.”Yesterday (Friday), children were bombed. It's cruelty, it's not war. I want to say it because it touches my heart,” he said in front of members of the Holy See government, provoking an irritated reaction. 'Israel.' Pope are particularly disappointing because they are disconnected from the real and factual context of Israel's fight against jihadist terrorism,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry responded in a statement on Saturday evening. “The criticism should only be addressed to the terrorists, not to democracy which defends itself against them. We must put an end to double standards, and the blacklisting of the Jewish state and its people,” he added. “The cruelty is the terrorists who hide behind children while by trying to assassinate Israeli children,” Israeli diplomacy continued. “The cruelty is the terrorists who keep 100 people hostage for 442 days, including a baby and children, and mistreat them,” she insisted. . “Unfortunately, the pope has decided to ignore all of this.”- Change of tone? -The Argentinian pope's statements seem to indicate a change of tone and the abandonment of a certain political neutrality, his criticisms against Israel increasing.End November, he denounced “the arrogance of the invader” in Ukraine but also in “Palestine”, a week after the publication of a book in which Francis invites us to “study carefully” whether the situation in Gaza “corresponds to the technical definition” of genocide, an accusation firmly rejected by Israel. And at the end of September, the Argentine Jesuit had already criticized an “immoral” use of force in Lebanon and Gaza, seeming to call on Israel to show restraint. The war in Gaza was triggered by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian movement Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023 which led to the death of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures and including the hostages dead or killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip. That day, 251 people were kidnapped on Israeli soil, 96 of whom remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army. More than 45,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli military campaign of retaliation in the Palestinian territory, the majority of civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Hamas government for Gaza, considered reliable by UN.ljm/cco
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