Pope repeats call for access to humanitarian aid, cease-fire in Gaza

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) – Pope Francis on Sunday repeated his call for ensuring access to humanitarian aid and a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, where the population is facing famine after nearly six months of Israeli attacks, Vatican News reported.

Delivering his Easter message following the Easter Sunday Mass to tens of thousands of Catholic pilgrims in Vatican’s St. Peter Square, Francis said: “I appeal once again that access to humanitarian aid be ensured to Gaza and call once more for the prompt release of the hostages seized on Oct. 7 for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip."

Stressing that the ongoing conflict is taking a heavy toll on the civilian population, particularly children, he added: "How much suffering we see in their eyes! With those eyes, they ask us: Why? Why all this death? Why all this destruction?”

“War is always a defeat and an absurdity,” the pontiff said.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed some 1,200 people and took around 250 as hostages.

More than 32,782 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have since been killed, along with mass destruction, displacement, and dire shortages of necessities.

Israel also stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has called on Tel Aviv to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.

In its Thursday verdict indicating additional measures, the top court ordered Israel to ensure "unhindered provision" of urgent aid to Gaza, saying: “Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine ... but that famine is setting in.”