ROME – Pope Francis called for a global ceasefire this weekend while renewing his condemnation of Israel's “atrocities” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“This Christmas, let us pray for a ceasefire on all fronts in the Holy Land of Ukraine, throughout the Middle East and throughout the world,” the Pope said in Weekly Angelus. address Sunday. “And with sadness I think of the brutality of Gaza: the machine gunning of children, the bombing of schools and hospitals… so cruel!”
The pope also called out continued attacks on “suffering Ukraine”, sometimes damaging schools, hospitals and churches.
“May the weapons be silent and the Christmas carols sound!” he said.
Sunday's commentary marks the second time in just a weekend that Pope Francis has accused Israel of “atrocities,” after he said on Saturday that Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip goes beyond war and amounts to “atrocities.” Ta.
In his annual Christmas address, Francis addressed members of the Holy See and said of Israel: airstrike At least 25 Palestinians, including seven children, were killed in Gaza on Friday.
“Yesterday, children were bombed. This is cruel. This is not war,” Francis said. “I want to say this because it moves my heart.”
The Pope has come under fire for suggesting that Israel's actions in the ongoing Gaza conflict may amount to “genocide” of Palestinians.
“As a people who lost 6 million sons and daughters in the Holocaust, we are particularly sensitive to the trivialization of the term 'genocide,' a trivialization that comes dangerously close to Holocaust denial.” I wrote On Friday, Israel's Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Tsikri spoke.
The pope had already described Israel's military invasion of Gaza as “terrorism” and “genocide,” but he recently went further, suggesting they could constitute genocide.
“At a time when Jews are fighting for their survival on many fronts against an enemy who seeks to destroy them, the Pope has decided to accuse the Jews of genocide, who are themselves victims of genocide. There is something alarming about that.” I wrote of wall street journaleditorial board editorial.
“Especially after the brutal October 7 massacre of unarmed Israeli civilians that started the war and Hamas' subsequent strategy of using innocent Palestinian civilians as human shields,” the paper said. said.
Italian Holocaust survivor Edith Brooke similarly condemned the Pope's use of genocide to explain Israel's war against Hamas.
“Genocide is something else. When a million children are burned to death, you can talk about genocide,” 93-year-old Brück said in an interview with an Italian daily. La Repubblica.
The risk of using the word “genocide'' too easily is that “using it in inappropriate situations diminishes the seriousness of the actual genocide.'' Genocide is something else,” she said.
