Pope Francis said that both parties “struggle so much” during his separate meetings on Wednesday with the families of Palestinian inmates in Israel and Israeli hostages in Gaza.
The 86-year-old pope disclosed that he had received two delegations: “one of Israelis who have relatives as hostages in Gaza, and another of Palestinians who have relatives held prisoner in Israel”—at the conclusion of his weekly audience at the Vatican.
“They suffer a lot and I heard how they both suffer,” he said, urging those gathered in St Peter’s Square to pray for peace.
“Wars do this, but here we have gone beyond wars,” he declared. “This is not war, this is terrorism.” Although he did not clarify if he was alluding to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ October 7 attack on the country, or both.
The private meetings would be “exclusively humanitarian in nature,” according to the Vatican, which stated last week that the pope wished to demonstrate his “spiritual closeness” during them.
“Every human being, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, of any people or religion, every human being is sacred, is precious in God’s eyes and has the right to live in peace,” the pope’s latest remarks were quoted.
After weeks of all-out fighting, Israel and Hamas announced a deal on Wednesday that would liberate dozens of Palestinian inmates and at least 50 hostages, as well as grant the beleaguered people of Gaza a four-day truce.
According to the Israeli government, the deadliest cross-border incident in Israel’s history was carried out on October 7 by Hamas gunmen, leaving almost 1,200 people dead—the majority of them civilians.
An estimated 240 Israelis and foreigners, including elderly and small children, were also taken hostage by Hamas and other Palestinian armed organizations.
Israel responded by launching a massive bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza, which the Hamas government claims has killed 14,100 people, the majority of whom were civilians, many of whom were children.
Ugochi Olivia Ubah is an Educator and a Writer