Pope again condemns October 7 Hamas assault, expresses concern for Gaza

In his annual State of the World address to the diplomatic community in the Vatican, Pope Francis again condemns Hamas’s October 7 attacks, while offering more qualified concern over Israel’s campaign to topple Hamas.

The pontiff says he feels “deep concern regarding the events taking place in Israel and Palestine.”

“All of us remain shocked by the October 7 attack on the Israeli people in which great numbers of innocent persons were horribly wounded, tortured and murdered and many taken hostage,” he says, without naming Hamas.

Francis also emphasizes his “renewed condemnation of this act.”

He seems to blame Hamas at least partly for the fate of Gazans, saying that the “attack provoked a strong Israeli military response in Gaza that has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Gazans, mostly civilians.”

Francis argues that the world is experiencing a growing number of conflicts that are slowly turning from “a third world war fought piecemeal into a genuine global conflict.”