Pope Leo XIV, the leader of the Catholic Church, has expressed his deep indignation following the recent Israeli attack on a church in Gaza and has appealed for an immediate end to what he called the “barbarity” of the war in Gaza.
Recall that on Thursday morning, a church of the Holy Family was hit, killing three of the estimated 600 Gazans sheltering there and wounding others, including the parish priest, Fr. Gabriel Romanelli.
This week, after reciting the Angelus prayer at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father named and prayed for the three victims, Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad, and Najwa Ibrahim Latif Abu Daoud, who he said were close to him and their families.
The Pope stressed that the attack was just one of the ongoing military attacks against civilians and places of worship in Gaza.
In this regard, the Pope again appealed for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and urged humanitarian law and respect for the obligation to protect civilians as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, as well as the indiscriminate use of force and the forced displacement of citizens.
Pope Leo concluded his appeal by giving a message to the Christian communities of the Middle East, which he understood could do little in the face of the current difficult situation and thanked them for their witness of faith.
Currently, more than 2 million people in Gaza have been displaced by the war, which is now in its 22nd month.
