In an interview on Tuesday by the Vatican News newspaper, Romanelli pointed out that the Supreme Pontiff “constantly follows what is happening in Gaza” to take an interest in the situation there, where 770 people have already been killed and more than 4,000 have been injured, due to Israeli raids.

“The Pope called me a few minutes ago” to express his closeness and “we thanked him for the call for a ceasefire and against all violence, all terrorism and all war,” said the parish priest of Argentine origin in his statements to that news outlet.

On Sunday, after praying the Angelus, Francis expressed that between Israel and Palestine “violence has broken out even more fiercely, causing hundreds of deaths and injuries” and asked that “please stop the attacks and weapons and understand that the “terrorism and war do not lead to any solution, but only to the death and suffering of many innocent people.”

He reaffirmed that “war is a defeat: every war is a defeat!” and asked that “we pray for peace in Israel and Palestine!”

In relation to that attack, Romanelli pointed out that “I am not a political analyst and I don’t understand much about this, but I know that this reality is terrible.”

On the morning of October 7, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) began the so-called Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, against Israel, in response to that nation’s occupation of the mosque of that name, the systematic raids of settlers and the continued attacks against the Palestinian people.

In a statement, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates noted that the crisis unleashed by the clashes between Hamas and Israel “is the consequence of 75 years of suffering and displacement of the Palestinian people before the silent gaze of the international community.”

Israeli press reported fighting in several southern towns, bordering the Gaza Strip, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized during a Security Cabinet meeting that “this is not an operation, nor a round of clashes. This is war.”

jg/ro/ort