Israel accuses pope of ignoring Hamas cruelty after he criticizes Gaza airstrikes
Foreign Ministry calls remarks ‘disappointing’ and ‘disconnected’ from reality, in latest tensions between Jerusalem and the Holy See
Israel accused Pope Francis of “double standards” on Saturday after he condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza at the top of his annual Christmas address to the Vatican’s Catholic cardinals.
During his address, the pope appeared to reference Israeli airstrikes on Friday that medics said killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza. While the IDF did not immediately comment on the airstrikes, it has long said it only targets terrorists and that Hamas hides among civilians.
“Yesterday, children were bombed,” said the pope. “This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry panned his remarks, saying that they were “particularly disappointing as they are disconnected from the true and factual context of Israel’s fight against jihadist terrorism —- a multi-front war that was forced upon it starting on October 7.
“Enough with the double standards and the singling out of the Jewish state and its people.”
The war in Gaza was sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and massacre in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages as thousands of Hamas-led terrorists rampaged across Israel’s Gaza border communities.
Referring to the pope’s accusation of “cruelty,” the Foreign Ministry statement rebutted that “cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to murder Israeli children; cruelty is holding 100 hostages for 442 days, including a baby and children, by terrorists and abusing them.”
“Unfortunately, the Pope has chosen to ignore all of this,” the ministry said.
The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
Francis also said on Saturday that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, known as a patriarch, had tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry.
The patriarch’s office told Reuters it was not able to comment on the pope’s remarks about the patriarch being denied entry.
Israeli officials were not immediately reachable for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The pontiff’s comments were the latest barb in an increasingly fractious relationship between Jerusalem and the Holy See.
Earlier this month, a seasonal nativity scene at the Vatican was removed after backlash over its depiction of the baby Jesus lying on a keffiyeh, the traditional scarf used by Palestinians as a national symbol.
The nativity scene drew criticism as it was suggestive of the trope that Jesus was a Palestinian rather than Jewish.
The pope has met frequently with family members of those taken hostage and has repeatedly called for their release.
However, a letter he wrote to Middle Eastern Catholics on the first anniversary of the attack never mentioned Hamas by name or made explicit reference to its atrocities, including the hostages. The letter also quoted passages from the Gospel of John that have historically been used to fuel religious antisemitism.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 45,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
