Pope Francis on Friday decried the deaths of children in Israeli military strikes in Gaza while expressing doubt that Israel and Hamas are seeking an end to the war between them, Reuters reported.
"I am sorry to have to say this," the pope told journalists during a flight back to Rome from Singapore. "But I do not think that they are taking steps to make peace."
He added that he speaks on the phone with members of a Catholic parish in Gaza "every day" and "they tell me ugly things, difficult things".
"Please, when you see the bodies of killed children, when you see that, under the presumption that some guerrillas are there, a school is bombed, this is ugly. It is ugly," continued Pope Francis.
The pope also said that "sometimes I think it's a war that is too much, too much".
In November, Jewish groups criticized Pope Francis after he appeared to accuse both Israel and Hamas of “terrorism” in the war that started after Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on October 7.
“This is what wars do,” the pope said at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square. “But here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism.”
Francis’ comments followed separate meetings with Jewish relatives of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian Arabs with family in Gaza.
Rabbi David Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, later wrote a letter to Pope Francis in which he called on the Pontiff to retract his comments.
The Pope has in the past been a proponent of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and has called for the implementation of a “two-state solution” to solve the conflict between the sides.
During a 2015 meeting with PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the Pope referred to PA Abbas as "an angel of peace", causing outrage on social media.
The Vatican later explained that the reference was mistranslated, and in fact was meant as encouragement for Abbas to pursue peace with Israel.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)