Pope condemns Israeli airstrikes in Gaza: ‘This is cruelty. This is not war’

Pope Francis again condemns Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a “genocide” of the Palestinian people.

Francis opened his annual Christmas address to the Catholic cardinals who lead the Vatican’s various departments with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday.

“Yesterday, children were bombed,” says the pope. “This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart.”

The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts but has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s military campaign against Palestinian terror group Hamas.

In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said some international experts said that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli sharply criticized those comments in an unusual open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio yesterday. Chikli said the pope’s remarks amounted to a “trivialization” of the term genocide.

Israel categorically rejects that characterization of its conduct in the ongoing war, which began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.