The head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis has waded into the ongoing attacks and violence in Israel and Gaza, declared that enough is enough of the killings that had claimed children and women among others.
In the midst of the conflict, Francis urged the humanitarian corridors to permit the supply of necessities to the Gaza Strip, which is currently under intensive Israeli bombing as a result of a violent offensive by its rulers, Hamas.
However, a report said that even while cemeteries were apparently filled, health workers in Gaza had started to store dead in ice cream freezer trucks since carrying them to hospitals had become too unsafe.
This was as the Israeli forces were last night readying for a ground invasion of Gaza.
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Conversely, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency published comments yesterday by President Mahmoud Abbas, criticising Hamas over its actions but later removed reference to the militant group without any explanations.
Concerns had increased over a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Israel hasreportedly cut off water, food and power, vowing to maintain the complete siege until all hostages taken by the Palestinian Islamist militant group were freed.
In the eight days since Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,300 Israelis in their attack, Israel has responded with a devastating bombing campaign that hadclaimed over 2,300 lives in Gaza.
But the Pope, who spoke after his traditional Angelus prayer in Rome’s Saint Peter’s Square, said, “Humanitarian law must be respected, especially in Gaza, where it is urgent and necessary to guarantee humanitarian corridors and help the population.
“I strongly urge that children, the sick, the elderly, women and all civilians should not fall victim to the conflict.
“There have already been so many deaths, please let’s not shed any more innocent blood, not in the Holy Land, not in Ukraine, not anywhere else. Enough is enough. War is always a defeat,” he said, castigating “the diabolical force of hatred, terrorism and war.”
Pope Francis also renewed his call “for the release of the hostages” kidnapped by Hamas fighters in southern Israel, and invited “all believers to unite in prayer with the Church in the Holy Land” on Tuesday.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, yesterday, vowed to “demolish Hamas” as his military prepared to move into the Gaza Strip in search of Islamist militants, whose deadly rampage through Israeli border towns shocked the world.
Israel has told Gazans to evacuate toward South, which hundreds of thousands had already done in the enclave that was home to more than two million people, about half in Gaza City.
Israel has already besieged Gaza, where conditions were deteriorating and deaths from Israeli airstrikes rising, with civilians safety no longer certain.
But the militant group, Hamas, which runs Gaza, has told the people to ignore Israel’s message to move South.
However, with fears of the conflict spilling over, United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has continued his rapid tour of Middle East states, seeking to prevent escalation and secure the release of 126 hostages Israel said were taken by Hamas back into Gaza.