#Pope #Francis #calls #ceasefire #Gaza #release #Israeli #hostages
Pope Francis repeated this Easter Sunday his call for the release of the Israeli hostages and an immediate ceasefire in Gazaat a time when a new round of negotiations for a truce between Israel and Hamas begins.
“I reiterate the call to guarantee the possibility of humanitarian aid access to Gaza, urging again the rapid release of the hostages kidnapped on October 7 and an immediate ceasefire in the Strip,” said the Argentine pontiff in his Holy Week message in the Vatican.
The Pope also lamented the situation of the civilian population in the Palestinian enclave. “How much suffering we see in his eyes. With those eyes they ask us: Why? Why all this death? Why all this destruction?,” he lamented. War is always “a defeat” and “an absurdity.”
Likewise, he requested that the prisoners of war held in both Russia and Russia be released. Ukraine.
“By asking that the principles of international law be respected, I express my hope in a general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine for the good of all,” Francis declared before some 60,000 faithful.
