Pope repeats call for access to humanitarian aid, ceasefire in Gaza
Athens, Greece - Pope Francis on Sunday repeated his call for ensuring access to humanitarian aid and a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, where the population is facing famine after nearly six months of Israeli attacks, Vatican News reported.
Delivering his Easter message following the Easter Sunday Mass to tens of thousands of Catholic pilgrims in Vatican’s St Peter Square, Francis said: “I appeal once again that access to humanitarian aid be ensured to Gaza and call once more for the prompt release of the hostages seized on October 7 for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.”
Stressing that the ongoing conflict is taking a heavy toll on the civilian population, particularly children, he added: “How much suffering we see in their eyes! With those eyes, they ask us: Why? Why all this death? Why all this destruction?”
“War is always a defeat and an absurdity,” the pontiff said.
Meanwhile, a top cleric of the Church of England on Sunday called for action to save starving children in Gaza and Sudan.
Delivering his Easter Sunday sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby urged action for the starving children of Gaza and Sudan, and the parents who desperately try to find food for them.
He also called for aid to the civilian population in Ukraine, where some 25-30 per cent of the children face poverty.
Besides, the British government allegedly received legal advice from its lawyers that Israel is breaking international law, according to a leaked recording on Saturday. Government’s lawyers said that Israel has breached international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip but the government has failed to make it public, according to a recording obtained by the newspaper.